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Merck Vioxx Litigation Score Card
By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 8 of 9 page(s)
The new trial is limited to the question of damages, and the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that if a new trial is ordered for compensatory damages, it must also include punitive damages, Judge Fallon stated.
He said it was reasonable for the jury to conclude that Merck failed to warn Mr Barnett and his doctors about the health risks of Vioxx and that he was "not troubled" by the $1 million punitive damage award.
The Barnett verdict evened the score between Merck and Vioxx plaintiffs with four wins apiece.
The news of the verdict sent Merck's stock value down 5.7 percent.
In a separate ruling, Judge Fallon dismissed several class action lawsuits against Merck filed on behalf of individuals in Italy and France saying they should sue the company in their own countries.
The latest Vioxx trial started on September 11, 2006, in Judge Fallon's court, with former Vioxx user Robert Smith claiming the drug caused his heart attack in February 2003.
For the first time, this trial focuses on an individual who began taking Vioxx after its label said that the drug could increase the risk of heart attacks.
In a pre-trial deposition, the 56-year-old Kentucky patient said, "I was a perfectly healthy man until I took Vioxx and I had a heart attack."
Mr Smith says he did not realize that Vioxx might have caused his heart attack until he saw an attorney's commercial on TV in 2005.
In New Jersey, Judge Higbee cancelled a trial previously set for September 2006, and the next scheduled trial in her court will begin on January 16, 2007. Judge Higbee has stated that it will involve multiple plaintiffs, but the specific cases have not yet been selected, according to Merck's August 7, 2006, SEC filing.
If the drug maker insurance company is successful in arbitration, Merck is going to have to dig deep when the inevitable day arrives and it has to start paying off its debts to injured plaintiffs. According to Rich Duprey for Motley Fool on April 3, 2006, "Merck is potentially on the hook for at least $11 billion in damages stemming from charges that it misrepresented or concealed the increased risk of heart attacks inherent in its painkiller, Vioxx."
In addition, legal analysts say the financial toll on the company could rise dramatically with guilty verdicts under New Jersey's consumer fraud statute, which allows juries to award the plaintiff triple damages that are not allowed to be covered by insurance.
Information for injured parties can be found at Lawyers and Settlements.com
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/
Evelyn Pringle
evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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by Eileen McMahon
$100.00
Number of pages: 109
Publisher: Parexel International Corporation
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