Vioxx was like a super-NSAID. I took it for month in my 20s with a degenerative disc.

It was incredible, eliminating chronic pain and inflammation. It allowed me to function normally, sleep, etc.

The problem is, it causes heart attacks, especially if you are at risk for having a heart attack. The key study showed a 5x higher rate of heart attack for Vioxx users vs Naproxen.

Merck developed a drug to serve as an aspirin alternative for arthritis sufferers. Somewhere along the line, they discovered it could kill you, but pushed the evidence under the rug because they had already invested so much. The drug went on to get FDA approval (a process highly dependent on studies conducted by the manufacturer seeking approval, such that they had the opportunity to commit the fraud), and in the end between 50-500k individuals got heart attacks and other deadly consequences as a result of taking the highly prescribed painkiller.