Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley [3] has written to the inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services [4] seeking an investigation into whether the Food and Drug Administration [5] and Merck [6] collaborated to try and discredit a whistleblower. Dr. David J. Graham [7], a FDA drug safety official, publicized the risks associated with Merck's painkiller, Vioxx. In his letter, Grassley cited notes by a Merck employee of a conversation with an FDA official who mentioned an "opportunity to get (the) message out" on Graham and distribute the company's critique of him to journalists. In a statement to Associated Press, Merck wrote that it has "right to express our views when we believe information others have presented is not fair and balanced." In a deposition in a class action case against Merck, Graham stated the material obtained under discovery "actually demonstrates more clearly just how widespread the organized campaign to discredit and smear me was."