PHARMACEUTICALS

* Drug giant Merck & Co should have pulled its Vioxx painkiller from the market four years ago because data showing that it raised the risk of heart attacks has existed since 2000, Swiss scientists said. In a report for British medical journal the Lancet, researchers at the University of Bern said there was substantial evidence of the dangerous side effects of the drug by the end of 2000, but the data were not analyzed properly.

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* Chiron Corp. said Jack Goldstein would serve as chief operating officer in a newly created position while the company worked to reopen a factory that makes the Fluvirin influenza vaccine, which was closed last month.