Medpharm: Merck and the significance of a single case
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Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : 11 Apr 2006 21:50
Merck has every intention of appealing the $9 million judgment against the company, awarded to a John McDarby of New Jersey, who claimed Merck’s Vioxx antiarthritic drug caused his heart attack. McDarby is the first plaintiff to prevail against Merck, and Merck is refusing to give an inch lest it lose a mile.
Merck pulled Vioxx off the market in 2004, when an independent study indicated that Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack in patents who used Vioxx for more than 18 months.
Merck will leverage a second case in appealing the first. Just one day earlier, another New Jersey jury rejected Thomas Cona’s claim, determining that VIOXX was “not a substantial contributing factor.” Spokesman Chuck Harrell told the media that “We are in this for the long haul," prepared to defend the Vioxx cases on a case by case.
That will be a long haul - at present, there are more than 10,000 such cases across the US. Merck, with $44 billion in assets, will likely weather the storm either way, but losses of $5 billion would eradicate its 2005 net profits.
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