Australian Nurses were paid by drug firm to help find patients to be targeted to take anti-arthritis drug Vioxx

Australian marketing staff from pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co paid specialist nurses half-a-million dollars to "hunt" through patient records for potential candidates for their blockbuster anti-arthritis drug Vioxx. The Federal Court was told the company aimed to identify 100 patients of each targeted general practitioner who were not taking Vioxx and could be recommended to take up the drug for their condition. Known as the "bone and joint care program", the marketing initiative employed nurses to go through patients' records with permission of their general practitioner.
Read article in The Australian (Australia)