Merck deleted Vioxx dangers?

I was just reading this article in E-Medicine about Vioxx. Here are the salient points :

-Vioxx was withdrawn in September 2004 after being shown to double the risk of MI and stroke in patients taking it for over 18 months.

-The Journal said it had determined that Merck deleted data regarding about three myocardial infarctions among Vioxx users, and other relevant data, prior to submitting its analysis from the VIGOR trial to the Journal in 2000. The trial compared the safety of Vioxx with naproxen.
The VIGOR study appeared in the Journal in November 2000, soon after Vioxx was launched in the United States to great fanfare as a painkiller that is much gentler on the stomach than conventional treatments like aspirin and naproxen.

Doc : Oh Well, sometimes the tested and proven drugs are better than the latest and greatest in the long run.