SHARES in Merck fell 3 per cent to $31.25 by the close in New York last night, after a scientist whose claims forced the withdrawal of Vioxx, the company’s blockbuster painkiller, increased his estimate of those killed or injured by the drug by almost five times.

David Graham, an employee of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said that up to 139,000 people had died or suffered heart attacks as a result of taking Vioxx since it was first approved in 1999.

Dr Graham added that he would publish the updated research paper, despite threats by the FDA to fire him.

The scientist originally claimed that 28,000 people had been killed or injured by the drug, sparking a debate over the safety of the entire class of Cox-2 inhibitor drugs. Merck withdrew Vioxx, citing its own safety concerns.

Wall Street analysts had previously put the cost to Merck of settling Vioxx lawsuits at $38 billion (£19.8 billion).

Separately, shares in Hollinger International rose 0.13 per cent to $15.70 after the media group was granted a three-month reprieve by the New York Stock Exchange. The company, once controlled by Lord Black of Crossharbour, had been threatened with a delisting last week after it failed to file its accounts on time.

Shares in Nortel Networks, which had also been threatened with delisting, rose by 2.31 per cent to $3.55. The company is currently restating its figures back to 2001.

The Dow Jones industrial finished down 53.60 at 10,729.40. The Nasdaq was off 23.29 at 2,152.15, with the broader Standard & Poor’s index of mid-sized stocks down 9.80 at 1,202.10.

Data disappointed the market as the Commerce Department said that US construction outlays fell by 0.4 per cent in November, the first decline in ten months.

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