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February 22, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Schwaller v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
VIOXX Lawyers Strategize over Evidence in Madison County Trial, When lawyers present opening arguments in Madison County's first Vioxx trial next week jurors will for the first time get a feel for what is expected to be a spellbinding five-week trial. But much of the posturing and strategizing critical to each side's case will have already taken place. Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack held a four-hour hearing Feb. 20 on "motions in limine," ruling on what evidence may or may not be introduced to the jury.
February 21, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Schwaller v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury Selection Begins in Major VIOXX Case, A crowd of potential jurors got their first look Tuesday at one of the more high-profile cases to be tried in Madison County in recent years. Circuit Judge Dan Stack spent a brief period questioning a field of 73 jury members in the first Midwest trial over the once-celebrated painkiller Vioxx. The pool was so large because many people are expected to be excluded before a jury is officially impaneled. That's due in part to the length of the trial, which is estimated at four to six weeks. Some 20 would-be jurors Tuesday asked to be let go because of health conditions or the sheer commitment of being in court every day for that time.
February 20, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Schwaller v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury Selection Began Today in Madison County Illinois VIOXX Trial against Merck, The process of picking a jury began Tuesday for a Madison County trial on whether the maker of the painkilling medicine Vioxx withheld information about the drug's risks. For now, Circuit Judge Dan Stack is talking with potential jurors about whether they would be available for a trial that could last more than a month. That phase of the jury selection process is expected to last the rest of the week. Jury selection will begin in earnest on Monday, when Stack will allow attorneys for both sides to begin asking potential jurors questions about their backgrounds and opinions.
February 20, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Schwaller v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
First Midwest VIOXX Trial to Get Underway in Edwardsville, Illinois, More than three years since 52-year-old Patricia Schwaller died of a heart attack, her husband and a pharmaceutical giant are poised to square off in court over whether the former blockbuster painkiller Vioxx caused her death. Jury selection is to begin here Tuesday in the first Midwestern trial over the arthritis medication, which Merck & Co. withdrew in 2004 after research showed it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Both sides and observers expect the Schwaller case to be closely watched to see for the first time how the legal wrangling over Vioxx plays out in America's heartland.
February 19, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News)
Recent VIOXX Verdicts
By The Associated Press
Some recent outcomes of trials against Merck & Co. and its now-discontinued arthritis treatment VIOXX:
Jan. 18, 2007: In Los Angeles, A hung jury forced a mistrial in the cases of two men who blamed their heart attacks on Vioxx. The men argued that Vioxx was a substantial factor in their heart problems and that Merck failed to give sufficient warning of potential safety hazards of the drug.
Dec. 21, 2006: A judge in a Texas widow's lawsuit over Vioxx reduced a $32 million jury award to about $7.75 million so that it conformed to state law. A state jury in April found Merck liable for the death in 2001 of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack within a month of taking the since-withdrawn painkiller.
Dec. 15, 2006: In Birmingham, Ala., Merck won its second Vioxx trial in less than a week when jurors rejected the claims of a 57-year-old man who blamed the drug for a 2001 heart attack. The jury deliberated just 90 minutes before siding with Merck in the lawsuit filed in 2005.
Dec. 13, 2006: In New Orleans, a federal jury ruled for Merck in rejecting a claim by a 50-year-old Tennessean who blamed Vioxx for his 2003 heart attack. Jurors answered "no" on a verdict questionnaire when asked if evidence showed that Merck failed to adequately warn the man's doctors of any known risk posed by Vioxx, or that the lack of such a warning was a cause of the man's heart attack.
Nov. 15, 2006: In New Orleans, a federal jury cleared Merck in the 2003 heart attack suffered by a Utah bank credit manager who had taken Vioxx for 10 1/2 months.
Sept. 26, 2006: In New Orleans, a federal jury deliberated three hours after a two-week trial before siding with Merck, finding there wasn't enough evidence to link Vioxx to a Kentucky man's heart attack in 2003.
April 21, 2006: In Rio Grande City, Texas, a state jury deliberated about seven hours over two days before finding Merck liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack within a month of taking Vioxx and ordered the company to pay $32 million. The man had suffered from heart disease for more than 20 years.
February 18, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Schwaller v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
First Midwest Trial over VIOXX Nears Start in Madison County, Beginning this week, pharmaceutical giant Merck will go to court for the first time in the Midwest to defend itself against allegations that it hid the risk of heart attack and stroke caused by its once-celebrated painkiller Vioxx. The lawsuit, claiming that the arthritis medication caused the fatal heart attack of a Granite City woman, is just one of more than 27,000 filed around the country alleging that Merck knew the drug's faults for years before pulling the pills from the market in 2004. Some 20 million Americans are believed to have taken Vioxx for joint aches before a clinical trial revealed a troubling side effect: a sharp increase in the risk of heart attacks or strokes.
January 12, 2007 (VIOXX Lawsuits News)
Lawyers Representing VIOXX Victims in Illinois Dedicated to Continuing Fight Against Merck's Hired Guns, With hundreds of Vioxx product liability cases to sift through, some Madison County judges seem willing to -- as one defense lawyer put it, "halt the gerrymandering of joinder." Merck & Co., Walgreens, and Osco Drugs -- defendants in a myriad of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs claiming heart-related problems from taking the recalled arthritis pain-reliever -- recently filed motions to sever the claims of 10 plaintiffs claiming only one of them is a resident of Madison County. The motions asked Circuit Judge Daniel Stack to separate into single cases those claims and then transfer the plaintiffs with no ties to Madison County on the grounds of forum non conveniens. Stack granted the motions to sever and set a Feb. 7 hearing to rule on the forum issue.
October 6, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News)
Vioxx Patients from UK Lose US Court Bid, New Jersey | Hundreds of British patients who claim they had heart attacks after taking the drug Vioxx have lost the right to fight for compensation in the US. A New Jersey court ruled the patients must challenge the US pharmaceutical company Merck in the UK courts.
October 4, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News)
Merck Likely to Face 40,000 Vioxx Claims, New Hampshire | Merck & Co. will face a total of about 40,000 claims over its withdrawn Vioxx painkiller once deadlines for filing lawsuits lapse around the U.S., court records and lawyer estimates show. Most suits over the drug have been filed in state courts in New Jersey and California or are being managed by a federal judge in New Orleans. Merck faced a total of 29,464 claims in those courts just before a Sept. 30 deadline, records show. The remaining 10,000 suits have been or will be filed in jurisdictions with later deadlines, according to lawyers involved with the cases.
September 27, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Smith v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Federal Jury Rules in Favor of Merck, New Orleans, LA | Merck & Co. Inc. scored another legal victory in a string of state and federal cases over the painkiller Vioxx. But the win -- handed down by a federal jury Tuesday -- essentially evens the scorecard, with five wins, four losses for the company and a sixth win overturned and headed to retrial. There are thousands more still pending. The jury, following a two-week trial, took just three hours to determine there wasn't enough evidence to link Vioxx to a Kentucky man's heart attack in 2003. Robert Garry Smith had claimed he'd taken the drug for knee pain for about 4 1/2 months but didn't realize at the time of his heart attack that Vioxx may have been a cause for concern.
September 26, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Smith v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck Wins Vioxx Trial but Will Likely Face Much Tougher Cases in Future, New Orleans, LA | A federal jury in New Orleans ruled in favor of Merck in the latest Vioxx trial. The plaintiff, Robert Garry Smith, 56, filed suit against Merck claiming that Vioxx contributed to a heart attack he had 3 1/2 years ago. Mr. Smith took Vioxx for 4 ˝ months for knee pain. While the victory is certainly good news for Merck, some plaintiff lawyers believe this case was not one of the strongest against Merck. These attorneys believe that the company’s toughest days in court are still many months away.
September 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Ernst v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck appeals $253 Million Vioxx Verdict in TexasVIOXX Case, Vioxx maker Merck is appealing its more than 253 (M) million dollar judgment awarded last year by a jury in Angleton, Texas. New Jersey-based Merck this week filed a notice of appeal in the case of Robert Ernst, who died in 2001. A company statement says Merck, in part, will argue that there was insufficient evidence that Ernst suffered an injury due to the Vioxx pain medication.
September 1, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Garza v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
New Developments May Change Verdict in Texas Vioxx Trial, RIO GRANDE CITY, TX | Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. is hoping a Starr County judge will throw out a multi-million verdict in a Vioxx trial here because of a business relationship between the case’s plaintiff and one of its jurors. The drug company has filed a request to examine bank and phone records of juror Jose Rios and Felicia Garza, whose husband, Leonel Garza, died of a heart attack in 2004 while he was taking the painkiller. A Rio Grande City jury awarded Garza’s family $32 million in damages in April.
August 31, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Judge Calls for New Trial in VIOXX Case | NEW ORLEANS | A federal judge has taken some of the sting out of a recent legal defeat that Merck & Co. suffered over its withdrawn painkiller, Vioxx.
The $50 million compensatory damage award a jury voted for on Aug. 17 was "grossly excessive," U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon ruled Wednesday. He said a new trial must be held to decide how much the manufacturer must pay a retired FBI agent who suffered a 2002 heart attack after taking the once-popular painkiller for 2 1/2 years.
August 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Judge Calls for New Trial in Vioxx Case | NEW ORLEANS | A federal judge ruled that a new trial must be held on damages for man who had heart attack after taking Vioxx. The $50 million compensatory damage award in a federal Vioxx case this month was "grossly excessive," and a new trial must be held to decide damages for a retired FBI agent who suffered a heart attack after taking the painkiller, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
August 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Judge Overturns VIOXX Award against Merck |
NEW ORLEANS | A federal judge overturned a $50 million award handed down by a jury against Merck & Co. Inc. earlier this month in a case of a former FBI agent who had blamed the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx for his heart attack.
In a written ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon did not dispute the jury's finding that Merck knowingly misrepresented or failed to disclose a material fact regarding Vioxx safety to the plaintiff's physician, but ordered a new trial to determine the financial damages."The Court finds that the $50 million compensatory damages award is excessive under any conceivable substantive standard of excessiveness," Fallon in his ruling.
The jury on August 17 awarded 62-year-old Gerald Barnett $50 million in compensatory damages and another $1 million in punitive damages.
August 18, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury awards $51 million in Vioxx case,
Merck win in another lawsuit is overturned, Merck & Co. suffered two setbacks Thursday that could complicate the company's fight against a mountain of lawsuits seeking damages over use of the drugmaker's prescription painkiller Vioxx. Thursday morning a federal jury in New Orleans determined that the drug giant should pay $51 million to a former FBI agent who claimed the painkiller caused his heart attack. Not long after, a New Jersey state court judge threw out a victory the company won in November.
August 18, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Humeston v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Judge vacates jury win for Merck in Vioxx case involving Boise man, The Merck pharmaceutical company says it may appeal a ruling yesterday that threw out its victory in a lawsuit filed by an Idaho man who had a heart attack while using the company's Vioxx pain medicine.
Fred Humeston talks with reporters outside a New Jersey courtroom after losing his fight against Merck & Co.
A state judge in New Jersey ordered a new trial for Frederick "Mike" Humeston of Boise, a postal worker who blamed his 2001 heart attack on taking Vioxx for two months.
A jury in Atlantic City last November found Merck provided adequate warning of risks linked to Vioxx.
August 18, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Merck Suffers 2 Vioxx Lawsuit Setbacks in New Orleans and New Jersey,
The judicial system offered Merck & Co. a double dose of bad news. A federal jury in New Orleans on Thursday ordered the drug maker to pay $51 million to a heart attack victim - the company's first loss at the federal level - the same day a state judge in New Jersey overturned a November verdict favoring Merck.
In New Orleans, the jury found that Merck "knowingly misrepresented or failed to disclose" information about Vioxx to retired FBI agent Gerald Barnett's doctors. It said Barnett, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., should get $50 million in compensatory damages. And it added $1 million in punitive damages, saying Merck "acted in wanton, malicious, willful or reckless disregard for the plaintiff's rights."
August 17, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Merck Must Pay $51 Million in Vioxx Case, New Trial Granted in Another, Merck & Co., suffered two legal setbacks today after a jury said the company must pay $51 million to a retiree who claimed its Vioxx painkiller caused his heart attack and a judge ordered a new trial for a man who lost his case over the drug last year. A former FBI agent, Gerald Barnett, 62, claimed Vioxx caused his 2002 heart attack in a suit tried in New Orleans federal court. The verdict may make it harder for Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, to fight every one of more than 16,000 lawsuits it still faces, as it said it plans to do
August 6, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | IOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Chicago defense lawyer Phil Beck is Merck's hired gun in New Orleans VIOXX case and others, Merck has budgeted $1 billion for battles against claims of injury from its painkiller Vioxx, and leading those fights in federal courts is Chicago lawyer Phil Beck. If Merck & Co. is ever going to have to pay tens of billions of dollars in damages over its painkiller Vioxx, plaintiffs' attorneys are first going to have to get past Phil Beck. Merck tapped the Chicago trial lawyer to steer it through nearly 6,000 federal lawsuits consolidated in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. So far Beck has won one key federal trial.
August 3, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Grossberg v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
LA jury finds Vioxx maker not liable for California man's health problems, A California jury on Wednesday cleared pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. of liability in the case of an elderly man who claimed his heart ailments were caused by the drug maker's once-popular painkiller Vioxx. After deliberating for about five hours in California's first trial over the drug, the 12-person jury determined that Merck was not negligent, did not conceal information and that Vioxx did not cause Stewart Grossberg's health problems.
August 2, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Grossberg v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury: Vioxx Maker Merck Not Liable For California Man's Heart Attack and Angina, A Superior Court jury on Wednesday rejected a Northridge man's claims that his 2001 heart attack was caused by taking the prescription drug Vioxx.
Jurors deliberated for about five hours before determining that Vioxx-maker Merck and Co. was not negligent in its marketing of Vioxx, did not put the drug's users in danger and did not withhold important facts from prescribing physicians. Stewart Grossberg claimed he had been taking the drug for more than two years when he suffered the heart attack at age 66.
August 1, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | VIOXX Trial News | Barnett v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Opening arguments begin in New Orleans VIOXX trial, The second federal plaintiff to claim that the painkiller Vioxx caused a heart attack is Gerald Barnett, a fit retired FBI agent who watched his diet, exercised regularly and was a model patient, his lawyer says. Gerald Barnett also is the son of a man who died of a heart attack, and had himself been regularly warned after his FBI physicals to get his cholesterol levels down, an attorney for manufacturer Merck & Co. countered. Barnett, 62, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., is among thousands of plaintiffs claiming that the drug, which was bringing in $2.5 billion a year for Merck at its height, caused a heart attack, and that Merck hid its dangers.
July 5, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Grossberg v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Witness says studies showed Vioxx users at risk of heart ailments, Patients who took the painkiller Vioxx were at risk of heart attacks and stroke - something shown by studies conducted years before the product went on the market, a doctor testified Wednesday. Dr. Lemuel Moye, a physician and professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas, took the witness stand as the first Vioxx liability trial in California entered its second week. Moye concluded the painkiller carried more risk than benefits to patients after he reviewed clinical trials conducted by Vioxx maker Merck & Co. dating back to 1996.
June 29, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Grossberg v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Testimony: Feds not told about tests that exposed Vioxx dangers, Merck & Co. did not inform federal authorities about two clinical trials in which users of the painkiller Vioxx were more likely to die than people given a placebo, jurors in the first Vioxx liability case to go to trial in California were told Wednesday. Dr. Edward Scolnick, the former head of Merck & Co.'s research laboratories, said in a videotaped deposition that he did not believe the numbers were coincidental. "It's not likely due to chance," he said. Scolnick's testimony was shown to jurors on the second day of Stewart Grossberg's products liability lawsuit against Merck. The 71-year-old plaintiff alleges the painkiller caused him to have a heart attack in 2001 and that Merck & Co. marketed it without warning consumers of its potential problems.
June 27, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Lawyers Like Vioxx Correction, Lawyers who lost their Vioxx cases said Tuesday they see new ammunition in their fights to win new trials now that a prominent medical journal has contradicted a key defense used by Merck & Co. On Monday, the New England Journal of Medicine issued a correction which reversed an article's claim that Vioxx elevated the risk of cardiovascular problems only after 18 months of use. However, the correction didn't state when the increased risk would begin.
June 26, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Journal Corrects Vioxx Article to Reflect Short-Term Heart Risk, More than a month after news surfaced that Vioxx might cause cardiovascular side effects before the 18 months originally cited in an influential 2005 study, the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday issued a formal correction to its article on the study to reflect the new information. "This correction retracts the claim that there is an 18-month delay before patients experience an increased risk while taking Vioxx," said Dr. Steven Nissen, interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and the author of a related letter, also released Monday by the journal. The original article outlining the results of the APPROVe study, which was funded by Vioxx' maker, Merck & Co., appeared in the March 17, 2005, issue of NEJM. Early data from the APPROVe trial prompted Merck -- in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- to pull Vioxx from the market in September 2004.
June 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Grossberg v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury selection begins in first Vioxx suit to go to trial in California, Jury selection began today in Los Angeles in a lawsuit by a Southern California man who claims he suffered a heart attack after taking the painkiller Vioxx. Stewart Grossberg's is one of more than 13-thousand such claims brought nationwide against drug maker Merck and Company. Grossberg, claims he took Vioxx for more than two years before he had a heart attack at 66. His case is the first to go to trial in California and one of some two-thousand filed in the state and consolidated in Los Angeles Superior Court by Judge Victoria Chaney.
June 16, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Prominent doctor who criticized Merck deposed for Vioxx trials, A prominent physician at Stanford University Medical Center, who accused Merck & Co. of infringing on academic discourse by trying to stifle and intimidate doctors it considered critics, was being deposed on Friday after being subpoenaed by the plaintiff lawyers. Dr. James F. Fries expressed his concerns about Merck's behavior, including suppressing Vioxx data, to the company's then-chief executive, Raymond Gilmartin, in a letter dated Jan. 9, 2001. He wrote that Merck has been trying to "systematically downplay some unusual side effect patterns of Vioxx" and that its employees have "systematically attacked those investigators or speakers who expressed what Merck staff felt were critical opinions in a manner which seriously impinges on academic freedoms.
June 11, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Top VIOXX Attorney Succumbs to Ovarian Cancer, Carlene Lewis, a member of the Houston legal team that won a $253.45 million jury verdict against Merck & Co. in the death of a Texan who used the painkiller Vioxx, died Monday of ovarian cancer. She was 51. The Vioxx case "probably was the capstone of her career," said Lewis' law partner Daniel Goforth, who called her a "pioneer" in investigating the safety of Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in 2004. The 2005 verdict in the case handled by Lewis' team was the first among thousands of Vioxx-related lawsuits that have been filed against Merck.
June 5, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Doherty v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Grandmother takes on Merck in Vioxx trial, Drug maker Merck & Co. repeatedly tried to downplay the cardiac risks of its painkiller Vioxx, so user Elaine Doherty didn't know about them and couldn't control them before she suffered a heart attack after taking the drug, her lawyer told jurors as a product liability trial began Monday. Doherty, a diabetic grandmother of seven who was taking Vioxx for arthritis, blames her January 2004 heart attack on the drug. Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, saying its own research showed it doubled risk of heart attack and stroke after 18 months' use.
June 5, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Doherty v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Latest VIOXX lawsuit trial hinges on warning, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. —Drug maker Merck & Co. repeatedly tried to downplay the cardiac risks of its painkiller Vioxx, so user Elaine Doherty didn't know about them before she suffered a heart attack after taking the drug, her lawyer told jurors Monday in the latest of the series of product liability cases against the drug's maker. Merck, which now faces more than 13,000 Vioxx-related lawsuits over its one-time $2.5 billion-a-year blockbuster, has vowed to fight them one by one. Merck has lost three trials so far, with juries awarding multimillion-dollar verdicts in each. The company plans to appeal those losses.
June 2, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | Doherty v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury chosen for next VIOXX trial in N.J., A jury of five women and five men was selected Friday in Atlantic City for the seventh trial against drugmaker Merck & Co. over its withdrawn arthritis drug VIOXX. Opening statements were set to begin Monday morning in New Jersey Superior Court in the case of Elaine Doherty, 68, who alleges VIOXX caused her heart attack and subsequent double heart bypass surgery in January 2004.
May 31, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
FDA VIOXX Whistleblower Says Agency Smeared Him Over His Vioxx Views, A U.S. Food and Drug Administration VIOXX whistleblower who claimed Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller caused 140,000 heart attacks and strokes testified that co-workers at his agency tried to damage his reputation. "I experienced threats, intimidation and actually what, in my view, appears to have been a very organized and orchestrated campaign to smear and discredit me," Dr. David Graham said in a May 9 videotaped testimony taken for Vioxx litigation. FDA officials worked "hand in glove"' with Merck to tarnish him, Graham said according to a sealed transcript of his remarks obtained by Bloomberg News.
May 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Vioxx Study Doctors to Publish New Data, Doctors who oversaw the study that led to the painkiller VIOXX being pulled from the market, spawning thousands of lawsuits, are planning a detailed analysis and publication of new data that calls into question the heart of VIOXX maker Merck & Co.'s legal strategy. Merck, which faces more than 11,500 lawsuits over its one-time blockbuster arthritis drug, VIOXX, has consistently argued that VIOXX only increased cardiac risks after patients took it for 18 months.
May 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Merck issues correction on Vioxx study, VIOXX maker Merck & Co. issued a correction for a key study of its now-recalled pain reliever VIOXX after the market closed Tuesday, asserting that the change does not alter the study's conclusions about VIOXX. In a statement, Merck said that it was altering language in a VIOXX study called Approve that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005. The company said that the VIOXX study's authors plan to send a correction to the well-known medical periodical.
May 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
VIOXX Experts say patients, doctors need clearer VIOXX data, When it comes to drug safety, U.S. patients and doctors need less advertising hype and more data to help decide whether to use prescription medicines, health researchers said on Tuesday. A panel of behavior experts, statisticians and other scientists said the Food and Drug Administration should consider simpler information on risks and benefits, such as a chart listing basic facts and how new drugs compare to older ones. Drug advertisements in particular should be toned down so patients can make rational choices, several experts said. Often they make broad claims without proper data, they said.
May 26, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Dever Colorado)
19 Vioxx-related lawsuits filed in Denver, Nineteen Colorado residents filed federal lawsuits this week against the maker of the painkiller Vioxx, claiming the drug has caused injuries including heart attack and stroke. The suits were filed in U.S. District court against Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. Inc., which has faced six separate trials around the country and has more than 11,500 lawsuits pending, the company has said. Most recently, a Texas jury last month found Merck liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who suffered a heart attack after taking Vioxx for one month.
May 19, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuit News | VIOXX Trial News | VIOXX Research & Studies)
Vioxx Danger May Start Early and Last Long After Discontinued Use - Merck Disagrees With Interpretation - FDA Pos. Permanent Damage
There appears to be more bad news for Merck & Co. after a Canadian Medical Association Journal said the drug may raise the risk of heart attack for patients who took Vioxx for less than 2 weeks. Investigative journalist Evelyn Pringle reports that the study published online this month, found that more than 25% of 239 patients who had heart attacks did so in less than 13 days of being on the drug.
May 9, 2006 (VIOXX News | VIOXX Research | VIOXX Studies)
Vioxx Starts Adversely Affecting Patients After 4 Months, Not 18 Months, Merck had initially claimed that Vioxx begins to have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system after 18 months' use, but data the company submitted to the FDA last week shows this starts to happen after just 4 months, according to the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Eric Topol, who authored 16 articles on Vioxx and was behind the move to investigate the drug, says there has never been any data to back the theory that adverse effects started after 18 months' use.
May 3, 2006 (VIOXX News | VIOXX Research | VIOXX Studies)
Study: Even short-term Vioxx use carries heart attack risk for elderly, A lawyer said Wednesday that more lawsuits may be brought against the maker of the painkiller Vioxx in light of a new study suggesting that the risk of a heart attack in elderly users of Vioxx occurs sooner after starting the medication than previously thought.
May 2, 2006 (VIOXX News | VIOXX Research | VIOXX Studies)
Vioxx risks can occur within 2 weeks-Canada study, The risk of taking the painkiller Vioxx is more acute than previously thought according to research published online on Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. A quarter of patients who suffered a heart attack did so within the first two weeks of taking their first Vioxx prescription, a McGill University Health Center study revealed. "The additional cardiovascular risk from Vioxx actually decreased with longer duration of Vioxx use, suggesting that the period of highest susceptibility for most people taking Vioxx may occur earlier than previously believed," said Linda Levesque, the lead author of the Vioxx study.
May 2, 2006 (VIOXX News | VIOXX Research | VIOXX Studies)
New Vioxx study contradicts key Merck defence, A new study of Canadian health records found that first-time users of Merck's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx had the highest risk of heart attack after only two weeks, delivering a blow to the US drugmaker's litigation defences. Merck faces a wave of litigation after it withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004, when a company study found increased heart risks after 18 months' usage. A quarter of 239 Vioxx users who had a heart attack experienced it between six and 13 days from their first prescription, according to the study to be published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).
April 22, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Rio Grande City, Texas | Garza v. Merck)
Jury Awards $32 Million to Family of VIOXX Heart Attack Wrongful Death Victim,
A Texas jury awarded $32 million to a family on Friday in a lawsuit claiming Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller caused a 71-year-old man's fatal heart attack, an amount likely to be cut under state law.
State court jurors in the border town of Rio Grande City found Vioxx was a cause of the death of Leonel Garza in April 2001 and that Merck failed to warn of the risks of Vioxx before he started taking the painkiller.
April 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Rio Grande City, Texas | Garza v. Merck)
Texas Jury Awards $32 Million in VIOXX Hearth Attack Wrongful Death Case, A Texas jury on Friday found that painkiller Vioxx caused the death of 71-year-old Leonel Garza and awarded $7 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages to his family. The verdict against Vioxx maker Merck & Co. Inc. came in the latest lawsuit charging that the company did not disclose for several years that Vioxx caused an increased risk of heart attacks.
April 20, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Rio Grande City, Texas | Garza v. Merck)
Texas plaintiffs seek over $1 billion damages in Vioxx case, Attorneys suing Merck & Co. Inc. for the death of Mr. Leonel Garza, a 71-year-old man who took Vioxx asked a Texas jury on Thursday to award more than $1 billion in damages, but Merck lawyers said the pharmaceuticals company should not have to pay anything. The damage request includes $22 million for mental anguish and personal loss and $1 billion in punitive damages, which punish a defendant for wrong behavior.
April 19, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Rio Grande City, Texas | Garza v. Merck
Closing Arguments Set in South Texas Vioxx Trial, RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — A jury in South Texas is to hear closing arguments Wednesday in another of the almost 10,000 lawsuits alleging Merck & Co. was responsible for heart attacks in people taking its painkiller Vioxx. Of the five cases decided in the country so far, Merck has won three and lost two. In the two losses, the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company was ordered to pay one plaintiff $253.4 million and the other $13.5 million.
April 15, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits)
Study shows how painkillers like Vioxx raise heart risk, WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Painkillers called COX-2 inhibitors may increase the risk of heart attacks by raising blood pressure and making the blood more likely to clot, researchers said on Thursday. They do so by the same mechanisms that they use to reduce pain and inflammation, said University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher Dr. Garret FitzGerald, who led the study.
April 12, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Former Vioxx User Gets $13.5M in Damages, To Carla Tennyson, the case against Merck & Co. and its Vioxx pill boiled down to one thing — coming clean. Tennyson was one of the jurors who slapped Merck with a $9 million punitive damage award Tuesday, concluding that the drug maker dragged its feet in notifying people about the risks of its blockbuster arthritis drug and modifying its product label once it knew about them.
April 11, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits)
Chronology of Events Surrounding Vioxx, Key events involving the safety of Vioxx and other painkillers.
April 11, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Jury Awards $9 million punitive damages to Vioxx plaintiff, A jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on Vioxx, finding that manufacturer Merck & Co. knowingly withheld information about the risks of its arthritis drug from federal regulators.
April 10, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Vioxx Jurors Will Continue Deliberating about Punitive Damages in Heart Attack Case, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Apr 10, 2006 (AP)— Jurors couldn't reach a verdict Monday on whether Merck & Co. should pay additional damages to a New Jersey man already awarded $4.5 million for a heart attack he blamed on the arthritis drug Vioxx.
April 8, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Among Vioxx lawyers, second banana comes out on top, When New Jersey's second Vioxx trial opened here last month, most eyes were on a baby-faced lawyer from Texas known for his loquacious, homespun delivery. After all, Mark Lanier was the man who won a $253 million verdict in the first Vioxx case last August. But this time around, it was a less flamboyant colleague who ultimately got the big prize. Robert J. Gordon, 49, a silver-haired attorney with a solid resume in product liability work, won a $4.5 million award for 77-year-old John McDarby, a wheelchair-bound diabetic from Park Ridge who, the jury said, suffered his 2004 heart attack as a result of taking Vioxx.
April 7, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck's Ex-CEO testifies in Vioxx trial, Raymond V. Gilmartin's appearance was his first in the lawsuits tried so far. He said he never knowingly hid safety data at Merck.
Gilmartin, former chief executive officer of Merck & Co. Inc., said that he never led Merck to favor profit over patients in decisions about Vioxx.
He coolly stood his ground against an accusatory lawyer and insisted he never knowingly masked safety data or led his company to favor profit over patients.
April 6, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck ex-CEO denies hiding Vioxx data from FDA, Merck & Co.'s former chief executive denied the company hid data on Vioxx from regulators as he took the stand on Thursday before a jury that will decide whether to award punitive damages to a man who said the painkiller caused his heart attack. On Wednesday, the jury awarded 77-year-old John McDarby $4.5 million dollars in compensatory damages. To award punitive damages under New Jersey law, the plaintiff's attorneys must prove that Merck misrepresented material information to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
April 5, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck Loses $4.5 Million Vioxx Verdict in New Jersey,
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co. must pay at least $4.5 million to a 77-year-old man who claimed its painkiller Vioxx caused his heart attack and nothing to another plaintiff for the same claim, a New Jersey jury ruled.
March 24, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck Scientist Says She Felt `Sick' After Vioxx Study Results, A Merck & Co. scientist told jurors that she felt ``sick'' in 2000 after seeing clinical trial data showing that the company's arthritis drug Vioxx caused five times more heart attacks than another painkiller, naproxen. Alise Reicin, a Merck vice president who designed the so- called Vigor study, testified that she was initially surprised at the results. Merck, the No. 4 U.S. drugmaker, used Vigor to test whether Vioxx caused fewer stomach problems than naproxen. Twenty patients on Vioxx had heart attacks, compared with four on naproxen. Vioxx caused half the amount of stomach bleeding.
March 24, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
In the trenches of Vioxx legal fight, workday goes into night,
Atlantic City, New Jersey - Thirty-six floors below, there are 3,510 slot machines, 177 table games and a world of temptation. For the legal eagles hunkered down in Room 3628 at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, though, gambling isn't on the docket. For weeks, lawyer Mark Lanier and his associates, paralegals and support staff have been spending nights in this hotel suite - plotting strategy, guessing at the enemy's next move, looking behind to look ahead. They call it the war room.
March 23, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Scientist: Merck did not hide Vioxx data, ATLANTIC CITY -- A scientist who helped develop the painkiller Vioxx yesterday rejected assertions by a plaintiff's lawyer that Merck & Co. tried to conceal from regulators unfavorable data about the popular arthritis drug's potential heart-safety problems.
Dr. Briggs Morrison defended the company's handling of a 1995 clinical study that cited positive effects of so-called cox-2 inhibitors such as Vioxx on the body, saying the data were included in Merck's 1998 application to the Food and Drug Administration to sell Vioxx.
March 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck takes the offensive in Atlantic City, N.J., Vioxx trial, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- After two weeks on the defensive, Merck & Co. began presenting its side of the Vioxx story to a jury Tuesday, hoping to show that the popular arthritis drug was thoroughly tested before being sold and didn't cause the heart attacks suffered by two New Jersey men. Confident history wouldn't repeat itself, Merck's lawyers called as their first witness a company scientist whose testimony in a previous trial here was thrown out by an angry judge because it overstepped the bounds of restrictions she set in advance.
March 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Summary of Tuesday's developments in New Jersey Vioxx Case, TUESDAY'S DEVELOPMENTS: Merck's bid to end the trial before it goes to a jury failed when Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee rejected the company's motion for a directed verdict. Merck then began presenting its side of the case, beginning by calling Merck Research Laboratories vice president Dr. Briggs Morrison to testify. WHAT'S NEXT: Morrison returns to the stand Wednesday for more questioning by Merck attorney Mike Brock, followed by cross-examination by Cona's lawyer, Mark Lanier.
March 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Make or break time in Vioxx drama, Cases involving long-term users of Vioxx will, as Meredith Wadman reports, determine the true cost to Merck and the drug industry of the painkiller's withdrawal. In a trial that opened on 6 March in Atlantic City, New Jersey, lawyers led by a charismatic Texan are trying to convince a jury that Merck's blockbuster painkiller caused heart attacks in two allegedly long-term users. It is the first time that the company has confronted plaintiffs who have taken the drug for more than 18 months — the period after which, according to the study that led Merck to pull the drug in September 2004, Vioxx boosts the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
March 18, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Vioxx plaintiff still in danger, doctor says, ATLANTIC CITY -- A 77-year-old Park Ridge man who blames a heart attack on Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller is in poor health and his heart could fail at any time, a cardiologist told a jury Friday in Atlantic City. "His prognosis is terrible," said Dr. Nicholas DePace of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. "Morbidity and mortality-wise, he's in pretty bad shape."
March 17, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Yale University Medical Professor Sees Short-Term Use of Vioxx as Risk, ATLANTIC CITY -- Testifying on behalf of a man suing Merck & Co. over its painkiller Vioxx, a cardiologist told a jury Thursday that the drug can increase the risk of heart attacks even in short-term use. Striking at the heart of Merck's defense, Yale University Professor Harlan Krumholz said a person need not take the drug for 18 months or more to face higher risks of heart attack and stroke. "It's associated with risk, and I do not believe that risk is time-dependent," said Krumholz, an expert in cardiology and epidemiology who testified on behalf of plaintiff Thomas Cona, a 59-year-old Cherry Hill businessman who was stricken almost two years after he first took the drug for back pain.
March 15, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Second juror excused in NJ Vioxx trial, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A juror whose father's name was mentioned during testimony has been dismissed from the panel considering a case filed by two men who blame the painkiller Vioxx for their heart attacks. The panel, which originally had 10 people, is now down to eight _ six of whom will serve as jurors, the other two as alternates once deliberations in the lawsuit against Merck & Co. begin. Another woman was excused earlier after pleading financial hardship.
March 15, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck Omitted `Critically Important' Data on Vioxx, Doctor Says, Merck & Co. withheld ``critically important'' data about the painkiller Vioxx when it omitted three heart attacks from a study on the drug's safety, a Yale University cardiologist testified. ``It's important for us to have all the information,'' Dr. Harlan Krumholz told jurors today in state court in Atlantic City, New Jersey. ``Scientists and physicians depend on that information to make our choices.''
March 14, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck Judge Dismisses Vioxx Juror After Questions, A New Jersey judge in charge of a trial over Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller dismissed a second juror, a day after an attorney questioned a witness about the woman's father. The lawyer, Mark Lanier, represents Thomas Cona, 59, who blames Vioxx for his 2003 heart attack. Lanier yesterday asked Cona's wife, Joyce, a teacher in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, if she knew a former school principal, John Carusi. His daughter, juror Lynne Carusi, sent a note to Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee and was dismissed today after a private interview.
March 13, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Highlights of Atlantic City, N.J., trial over arthritis drug Vioxx , Thomas Cona, 59, of Cherry Hill, and John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, blame their heart attacks on the pain reliever Vioxx and are suing manufacturer Merck & Co. The case, which is among more than 9,650 lawsuits filed over the now-withdrawn arthritis painkiller, is the first of six trials to involve former Vioxx users who say they took it for more than 18 months. Merck pulled it off the market in September 2004 after a study linked it to heart attacks and strokes, but the company maintains that Cona and McDarby had health problems that could have caused the heart attacks and that Vioxx can't be proven as the cause.
March 13, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Plaintiff tells court he didn't know of Vioxx risk, A second plaintiff took the witness stand in the latest product liability trial against Merck & Co. (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday and told the court he would not have taken Vioxx if he had known there were heart risks associated with the arthritis medicine. John McDarby, 77, who blames Vioxx for his 2004 heart attack, was pushed to the witness stand in a wheelchair and had difficulty moving into the witness chair before the jury in New Jersey Superior Court. Speaking slowly and sometimes indistinctly, the frail McDarby told the jury that he started taking Vioxx for arthritis pain in March 2000 and took it every day for more than four years until his heart attack on April 15, 2004.
March 10, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
FRIDAY'S DEVELOPMENTS: Plaintiff Thomas Cona testified about the day he was stricken and the impact his heart attack has had on his life. He acknowledged under cross-examination that his medical records don't support his claim he took Vioxx for three years. Cona's lawyer says free samples given to Cona by his doctors accounted for most of his Vioxx use.
March 10, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Plaintiff Takes Stand in Vioxx Trial, A man who blames Vioxx for his heart attack took the stand in his lawsuit against Merck & Co. on Friday, acknowledging that medical records don't support his claim that he took the drug for two years or more. Thomas Cona, 59, of Cherry Hill, also said he continued taking the drug for more than a year after his June 9, 2003, heart attack, even though he said in a court filing associated with his case that he stopped three months later.
March 8, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Vioxx video may aid plaintiffs, A jury hearing a Vioxx product liability case got its first look Tuesday at e-mail messages, internal documents and other materials showing manufacturer Merck & Co. was concerned about the drug's potential for causing heart attacks long before taking it off the market.
March 8, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck disclosed Vioxx heart risks, court told, Merck & Co. Inc. disclosed a report showing that its pain drug Vioxx had heart attack risks and did not try to hide results that could have hurt sales, the company's former head of marketing told a New Jersey state court on Wednesday.
March 7, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Lawyers: Merck Concealed Vioxx Dangers, At Start of Latest Vioxx Trial, Merck and Opponent Stake Familiar Turf, ATLANTIC CITY, Back in its home court, Merck & Co. staked out familiar turf as another Vioxx trial got under way, its lead attorney telling jurors the company adequately investigated the drug's safety and asserting it was heart disease and other ailments not Vioxx that led to two former users' heart attacks.
March 7, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck rushed Vioxx development, court told, ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey - Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) accelerated development of its Vioxx pain drug because it calculated it could lose more than $600 million a year if it did not beat competitors to market, a court heard on Tuesday. David Anstice, Merck's former president of human health, told jurors in the latest Vioxx liability trial that Merck was concerned profits would fall if it did not compete effectively with Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) similar arthritis drug Celebrex. "We were working very diligently and aggressively to get Vioxx to market as quickly as possible," Anstice said in state court in Atlantic City, New Jersey, under questioning from Mark Lanier, an attorney for a man who blames Vioxx for his 2003 heart attack.
March 6, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | McDarby v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Summary Box: Vioxx trial begins in Atlantic City, THE CASE: Two men who blame their heart attacks on the pain reliever Vioxx are suing its manufacturer, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck and Co. The case is among more than 9,650 lawsuits over Vioxx have been filed in state and federal courts. OPENING STATEMENTS: Lawyers for the two plaintiffs _ whose cases are being tried as one _ said Merck knew about risks posed by its blockbuster arthritis drug and that company executives concealed and downplayed them. Merck's lawyer said the company diligently tested Vioxx _ before and after it went to market _ and that the two men suing in this case both were at risk for heart attacks before they ever took it. WHAT'S NEXT: The trial resumes Tuesday, with David W. Anstice, Merck's chief marketing and sales executive, to be questioned by plaintiffs' lawyers, followed by Merck's lead attorney.
March 3, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | Cona v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Length of time using Vioxx seen key in Merck trial, Opening arguments in the next Vioxx liability trial start on Monday as Merck & Co. faces the lone lawyer who has beaten the company in one of these cases — this time representing two long-term users of the painkiller who say it caused their heart attacks. So far, two juries have found Merck not liable, while Mark Lanier, a flamboyant Texas lawyer, helped secure a $253 million judgment for the widow of a Vioxx user last August.
March 2, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | Cona v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Next trial over Vioxx may be Merck & Co's toughest yet, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- After two victories in a row, Merck & Co. faces its toughest courtroom test yet in the legal wars over Vioxx next week, squaring off against the only lawyer to beat the drug maker in such a case and two long-term Vioxx users who appear to have science on their side. The outcome of the trial, experts say, could chart the course for thousands of future Vioxx cases.
Another Merck victory could have a chilling effect on some of the approximately 9,650 Vioxx cases pending against the maker of the blockbuster arthritis drug that was taken off the market in 2004 after a study linked it to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. A Merck loss, on the other hand, could cause the Whitehouse Station-based company to rethink its plan to try the cases one by one rather than offer settlements.
February 28, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | Cona v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
$253 million verdict Vioxx lawsuit lawyer Lanier takes on Merck again,
Mark Lanier, the only lawyer to defeat Merck in a Vioxx lawsuit, faces drug maker in its home state of N.J. Mark Lanier, the only lawyer so far to defeat Merck in a Vioxx-related lawsuit, will face off with the drug maker again, but this time Merck has the home field in New Jersey and Lanier will be representing a heart attack survivor, not a widow. Lawyers on both sides will be reined in by clocks with punch-button timers of the type used by professional chess players to keep the game moving, just in case they're feeling gregarious. Lawyers from both sides agreed to the idea, with five additional hours allotted to the plaintiffs to help them build their cases.
February 25, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | New Jersey VIOXX Trial | Cona v. Merck & Co., Inc.)
Next Vioxx trial to be a model of swift justice, The wheels of justice will spin a little faster at the next Vioxx trial. A pair of chess clocks will see to that. Determined to keep it short, lawyers for Merck & Co. and two men suing the painkiller's manufacturer have agreed to time limits on testimony and will use tabletop clocks -- activated manually, each time one side or the other puts a witness on the stand -- to keep track.
February 22, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Merck & Co., Inc.)
What Merck knew about Vioxx risks, when: New revelations, The New England Journal of Medicine released internal Merck memos indicating that Merck knew more about cardiovascular problems caused by Vioxx than it revealed when it published a giant study of the drug in 2000. The release of the memos comes as part of an escalating battle over whether Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people ) and its collaborators acted appropriately when they published an 8,000-patient study of Vioxx, the first study to indicate that Vioxx might cause heart attacks.
February 21, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck long-term Vioxx users' lawsuits seen as more difficult to defend, Merck & Co. Inc.'s victory in the first federal case over its recalled painkiller Vioxx may be short-lived, as investors look to bigger legal hurdles ahead, analysts said. On Friday, a federal jury found the drugmaker was not liable in the 2001 death of a Florida man who had used Vioxx for less than a month. Analysts said it would have been a huge loss if Merck failed to win the case, the first in a federal court and the third of more about 9,600 cases filed against Merck in U.S. and state courts claiming the company hid health risks of the once-best-selling painkiller.
February 17, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Federal Vioxx jury says Merck not liable in death, A federal jury said on Friday that drugmaker Merck Co. Inc. was not liable in the 2001 death of a Florida man who used the recalled painkiller Vioxx. The eight-person jury's verdict was the first in a federal court and the third out of more than 9,000 cases filed against Merck in U.S. and state courts claiming the company hid the once-best-selling painkiller's health risks. Specifically, the jury found Vioxx was not a defective product, that Merck was neither negligent in making the product nor did it fail to warn users of its risks.
February 9, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Merck & Co., Inc.)
Vioxx Critic Denies Being Courted, Well-Known Vioxx Critic Denies Being Courted As Consultant by Vioxx Attorney Mark Lanier, NEW ORLEANS — A prominent cardiologist and major plaintiff witness in the first federal Vioxx trial denied Thursday that he is being courted as a litigation consultant by the attorney he has hired a Texas lawyer leading numerous Vioxx lawsuits. An attorney for drug maker Merck & Co. told a federal judge Wednesday that Dr. Eric J. Topol had left the Cleveland Clinic and retained Mark Lanier of Houston to represent him in that departure, and that Lanier was trying to get Topol as a plaintiffs' consultant.
February 7, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Plaintiff attorneys change approach in first federal Vioxx case, NEW ORLEANS -- Lawyers switched legal tactics for the retrial of the first federal Vioxx case, working to convince jurors that manufacturer Merck & Co. ignored safety in favor of sales, rather than opening with medical testimony. That approach is much closer to an earlier trial in a Texas state court, in which jurors decided Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck should pay $253.4 million, than to the original federal trial. The federal trial ended with a hung jury; jurors reached afterward said the deadlock was 8-1 in Merck's favor.
Evelyn Irvin Plunkett claims that taking Vioxx for a month caused the heart attack which killed her husband Richard "Dickie" Irvin in 2001, and that Merck hid the dangers of its product from scientists and the public.
February 6, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Merck Rushed Unsafe Vioxx to Market, Lawyer Argues in Federal Vioxx Case Retrial,
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. rushed the painkiller Vioxx to market despite knowing its potential health dangers, an attorney said on Monday in opening arguments of the latest lawsuit charging that the popular drug caused someone to die. Merck's lawyer countered that heart disease, not Vioxx, killed Richard Irvin, a 53-year-old Floridian who died in 2001 after taking the drug for less than a month. The arguments came in the retrial of a case that ended in a mistrial in December when one member of a nine-person jury felt Merck was liable for the death and a unanimous verdict could not be reached.
February 5, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Medical Journal's article is a wild card in federal Vioxx retrial, NEW ORLEANS -- A New England Journal of Medicine criticism of a study cited in Vioxx lawsuits is expected to play a part in the retrial of the first federal Vioxx lawsuit _ but it's not clear if it will be a legal hand grenade or a nuclear warhead. The disclosure that some negative data was omitted from the study could make manufacturer Merck & Co. look as if it's hiding something, legal experts say. That is what attorneys for Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, whose husband died after taking the drug for a month, say they can prove in the trial starting Monday.
The first federal trial _ held in Houston in the wake of Hurricane Katrina _ ended with a deadlock. Two jurors said the split was 8-1 in favor of Merck's contention that taking Vioxx had nothing to do with the death of Richard "Dickie" Irvin. The day those deliberations began, the New England Journal of Medicine published criticism _ one step short of retracting the study _ accusing its authors of withholding and deleting relevant data. The information alone is "damaging although not shattering," but its implications could be devastating, Northwestern University law professor Ronald Allen said.
January 31, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Merck & Co., Inc.)
Former Merck CEO agrees to testify at N.J. Vioxx trial, Former Merck & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin has agreed to a plaintiff lawyers' request that he testify at a Vioxx trial slated to begin in Atlantic City in late February, both sides said. Plaintiff lawyer Mark Lanier said he requested Gilmartin's presence and intends to call him because "when you have to look a jury in the eye it is harder to fudge."
January 31, 2006 (New Jersey VIOXX Case - Edgar Lee Boyd)
Judge says Vioxx user fails to link gastrointestinal damage to Vioxx, ATLANTIC CITY -- Merck & Co. has won a lawsuit over its Vioxx painkiller, after a state judge in New Jersey said a Texas man failed to prove the drug caused his stomach pain and internal bleeding. Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee granted a motion for summary judgment to Merck, saying the plaintiff, Edgar Lee Boyd, was unable to show he was hurt by Vioxx or by the company's alleged failure to warn of its side effects. "Plaintiff has not presented sufficient evidence that defendant's failure to warn was the proximate cause of his gastrointestinal injuries," Higbee said in her order issued Monday. "No reasonable jury could find that a different warning regarding gastrointestinal risks would have made a difference."
January 30, 2006 (VIOXX Lawsuits | Merck & Co., Inc.)
Merck taking a tough stance on Vioxx suits, WASHINGTON - Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. vowed to fight every claim filed by plaintiffs who say they were injured by the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. Now, with 11 cases slated for trial in the next five months, the viability of the company's scorched-earth strategy is likely to become clear. More than 9,200 lawsuits involving 18,250 plaintiff groups have been filed against Merck, which pulled Vioxx off the market in September 2004. Merck took the action because of a study that showed the drug was associated with increased risk of heart attacks and strokes after 18 months of use. So far Merck's courtroom record is mixed - one win, one loss and one hung jury, all in cases involving relatively short-term use of the drug.
January 29, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Vioxx trial turning city of 12,000 into media ground zero, Business suits, BlackBerries and laptops seem to have taken over this town. As the nation’s fourth Vioxx lawsuit began this week in Rio Grande City, dozens of lawyers, reporters, analysts and expert witnesses descended on this city of about 12,000.
January 25, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Testimony to begin in fourth Vioxx trial, Lawyers for the family of a 71-year-old man opened their case Wednesday by arguing that his fatal 2001 heart attack was a sudden reaction to Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx and not the end result of 23 years of heart disease as Merck lawyers contend. Joe Escobedo, the Leonel Garza family attorney said in his opening statement that Garza was told after a stress test shortly before he died that he had a less than 2 percent chance of dying of a heart attack within a year. "Vioxx caused Mr. Garza's death," Escobedo said. "Mr. Garza did have (cardiovascular) risk factors but they were under control."
January 25, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Federal Vioxx case retrial set for Feb. 6 in New Orleans, Although New Orleans has fewer than half the residents it did before Hurricane Katrina, the judge hearing the first federal Vioxx trial has told attorneys he does not expect any problems finding a jury to retry that case.
Judge Eldon E. Fallon told attorneys that notices were sent to 200 potential jurors, and only four replied that they could not attend on the scheduled dates. "Judge Fallon is confident they will get a jury for the case set Feb.6. He did not anticipate having any problem selecting a jury.
January 24, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Jury selected in fourth Vioxx trial, A jury of 10 men and two women was selected Tuesday to hear the nation's fourth Vioxx trial, a lawsuit filed in south Texas by the family of an older man who died five years ago after battling heart disease for more than two decades. Among those who were dismissed from the jury pool were a 21-year-old man who wrote a paper about Merck while in high school and a woman who said she went to the emergency room after taking Vioxx. Several were dismissed because they knew the plaintiffs or had experienced recent deaths in their families.
January 24, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Jury selection to begin in fourth trial, HARLINGEN, Texas Attorneys for Vioxx-maker Merck and Company may face their biggest challenge when the nation's fourth Vioxx trial begins today in the Rio Grande Valley. That's when they select a jury from what legal experts say is one of the most plaintiff-friendly regions in the country.
Those picked for the jury may be deciding if 71-year-old Leonel Garza's fatal 2001 heart attack resulted from 23 years of heart disease or about three weeks of taking Vioxx for arm pain.
January 24, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Nation's fourth Vioxx trial to get under way in south Texas, HARLINGEN -- Defense attorneys in the nation's fourth Vioxx trial may face their biggest challenge today when they select a jury from what's considered one of the most plaintiff-friendly regions in the country, legal experts say. Those picked for the jury may be deciding if 71-year-old Leonel Garza's fatal 2001 heart attack was the end result of 23 years of heart disease or about three weeks of taking Merck & Co.'s Vioxx for arm pain.
January 24, 2006 (Federal Vioxx Case Retrial in New Orleans, LA - Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Federal court releases medical journal e-mails in Vioxx case, NEW ORLEANS -- An editor for a prestigious medical journal sounded both grateful and exasperated in an e-mail to another scientist as they went over an editorial criticizing researchers for leaving out critical data from a study of the painkiller Vioxx. "Thanks again with all the time you have spent on this Vioxx situation. The more we get into it, the messier it becomes," Dr. Gregory D. Curfman, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote in an e-mail made public Tuesday by the federal court in New Orleans.
January 10, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Second Texas Vioxx trial slated for January, NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co., which lost its first Vioxx product liability case last summer in Texas, on Tuesday said a trial involving another Texas Vioxx user who suffered a fatal heart attack will begin January 24. Merck said it believes evidence in the case will show that its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx did not cause the heart attack of 71-year-old Leonel Garza Sr., who died of the attack on April 21, 2001.
January 10, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Fourth Vioxx case set for Jan. 24 |
New Vioxx case to be held in Texas, while mistrial will be retried next month in New Orleans, NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) The fourth Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. will be held this month in a rural Texas court, the drug giant said Tuesday, and a retrial of the federal case that ended in a hung jury will be held in February in New Orleans. The family of Leonel Garza, 71, has sued Merck, blaming Vioxx for Garza's fatal heart attack in 2001, said the company, and the trial will be held Jan. 24 in Starr County, Texas.
January 7, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Second Texas Vioxx case trial set in Starr County, RIO GRANDE CITY — The nation’s fourth lawsuit against Merck & Co.’s Vioxx painkiller, linked to heart problems, is set for jury selection Jan. 24 in a Starr County courtroom. The family of Leonel Garza sued the New Jersey pharmaceutical company, two McAllen doctors and a Harlingen clinic in March 2003 after the 71-year-old Rio Grande City man died of a heart attack one month after taking Vioxx.
January 6, 2006 (Second Texas VIOXX Case | 4th Vioxx Trial | Garza v. Merck)
Federal judge says Vioxx cases may be sent back to states,
The judge overseeing federal lawsuits over Merck & Co. Inc.'s Vioxx painkiller said he might end his effort to combine the cases for a possible settlement because of delays in getting some claims to trial. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans said he was having trouble getting jury trials scheduled after Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of residents and shut the city's courthouses for months. Plaintiffs' attorneys are pressing ahead with similar Vioxx suits in state courts around the United States.
January 5, 2006 (Luisianna VIOXX Cases)
Merck Vioxx Judge Threatens to End Suit Consolidation, The judge overseeing federal lawsuits over Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller said he may end his effort to combine the cases for a possible settlement because of delays in getting some claims to trial.
Januay 4, 2006
Merck CEO Rules Out Vioxx Settlement, Merck & Co. (MRK) Chief Executive Richard Clark reiterated the company's vow to defend itself against each Vioxx lawsuit, and said it would be "unacceptable" to pursue a global settlement of the cases. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley pharmaceutical conference in New York Wednesday, Clark said "thinking about a global settlement or trying to put this behind us is totally unacceptable."
January 3, 2006 (New Jersey VIOXX Cases)
She's Ready to Dispense Justice in 4,333 Vioxx Suits, New Jersey Judge Carol Higbee isn't daunted by the mountain of cases over the Merck drug. For someone mired in judicial purgatory, Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee is remarkably upbeat. She doesn't want pity — many judges work as hard, she says. She doesn't want publicity — it makes her uncomfortable, and she grants interview requests grudgingly. She just wants justice — and she's ready to dispense it, one Vioxx case at a time, even if it takes a lifetime. And at the current rate, it could, assuming the cases are not settled or withdrawn.
January 1, 2005
Former Vioxx user planning to sue , The painkiller Vioxx continues to cause former and current patients taking the drug to suffer, and many former Vioxx users are taking their stories to the courts with the realization that Vioxx, which was supposed to help, may have actually harmed them. Jacksonville attorney Cy Jenkins is one of those people, and he currently has a Vioxx lawsuit pending against the maker of the drug.
December 28, 2005
Drug Firms Make More Study Results Public after VIOXX lawsuits, Drug companies are making public more information about medical studies they are conducting, but some still withhold key details, a new analysis of a federal registry finds. Merck & Co., stung by allegations that it hid information on Vioxx's dangers, gets somewhat better marks in the new analysis than it did in an earlier one. However, Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis are lagging, according to the report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
December 27, 2005
For NJ judge assigned to Vioxx, a never-ending docket, ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- For someone mired in judicial purgatory, Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee is remarkably upbeat. She doesn't want publicity, she just wants justice and she's ready to dispense it, one Vioxx case at a time, even if it takes a lifetime. At this rate, it could, assuming the cases are not settled or withdrawn. Higbee, 55, is the New Jersey judge assigned to thousands of cases brought in state court against Merck & Co. over its now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. The lawsuits, all 4,333 of them, blame Vioxx for heart attacks and strokes suffered by users.
December 19, 2005
Lessons from Vioxx, MERCK PHARMACEUTICAL company took the pain reliever Vioxx off the market more than a year ago, after a clinical study found that Vioxx caused heart attacks. And now instead of helping people with chronic pain, Vioxx is the subject of thousands of lawsuits contending that it helped to kill them.
December 16, 2005 (First Federal Vioxx Case -- Richard "Dickie" Irvin)
Federal VIOXX Case Retrial to be Held in New Orleans in February, HOUSTON Dec 16, 2005 — Round Two of the nation's first federal trial challenging safety of Merck & Co.'s drug Vioxx will be Feb. 6 in New Orleans, a judge told attorneys Friday. The federal Vioxx case trial centered on the 2001 death of Richard "Dicky" Irvin, a Florida wholesale seafood company manager who took Vioxx for about a month. Merck blamed Irvin's clogged arteries for his death, and said Vioxx couldn't be responsible because he took the drug for such a short time. Irvin's widow, Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, countered that Vioxx caused a blood clot in one of Irvin's arteries, which led to his fatal heart attack.
December 15, 2005
Merck's defense in Vioxx case suffers setback, Vioxx company Merck's defense against lawsuits for damages by people who suffered heart attacks after taking Vioxx has taken a blow from a pillar of the medical establishment. In an online "expression of concern", The New England Journal of Medicine claims that Merck knowingly omitted three instances of heart attacks from a clinical study published in the journal in 2000. The journal learned of the omission from documents submitted in one of around 7000 lawsuits pending against Merck since it withdrew the drug in September 2004.
December 13, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Case)
Lone holdout juror caused Merck's Vioxx mistrial: paper, HOUSTON (Reuters) - The mistrial in the first federal trial over Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx was caused by a lone holdout on the jury who believed the company was at fault in the death of a Florida man, the Houston Chronicle reported on Tuesday. The U.S. judge hearing the case declared a mistrial on Monday after the nine-member jury said they could not reach a unanimous verdict in the case, which will be retried next year.
December 13, 2005
Merck Faces Mark Lanier, Lawyer Who Beat Them Before in Next Vioxx Trial, Merck & Co., after one win, one loss and one mistrial in defending lawsuits over its Vioxx painkiller, will next face the lawyer who beat the company and the first victim who used the drug long enough to risk a heart attack. Thomas Cona, a Vietnam War veteran who took Vioxx over a two-year period for lower-back pain, claims the drug caused his heart attack. Merck has said there is some risk of heart attack or stroke after at least 18 months of Vioxx use. Cona will be represented by Mark Lanier, the Texas lawyer who won the first case, which produced a $253 million verdict against Merck.
December 12, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Federal Vioxx case ends in mistrial, The nation's first federal Vioxx trial ended Monday with a hung jury, but the case involving the 2001 death of a Florida man who took the once-popular painkiller for a month will be retried, a judge said. The mistrial leaves Vioxx maker Merck & Co. with the prospect of facing a new jury that could hear allegations that the company withheld information from the New England Journal of Medicine about a 2000 Vioxx study so the drug would appear safer than it was. Merck shares fell almost 3 percent as the trial's outcome shook investors.
December 12, 2005
CHRONOLOGY-Key events in the history of Merck's Vioxx
December 11, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Vioxx Jurors Struggle for Verdict, Told to Keep Trying, Saturday was a tense day in Courtroom 11B of the Federal Courthouse in Houston, where the first federal Vioxx case is being heard. Mid-morning, the five men and four women on the jury sent word to U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon that they were having trouble reaching a verdict. They've been working since Thursday afternoon to decide if Vioxx played a role in the fatal heart attack of 53-year-old Richard "Dickie" Irvin in 2001.
December 11, 2005
New England Journal of Medicine Editorial on Vioxx Evidence May Bolster Plaintiff Cases | NEW YORK -- Merck & Co.'s failure to disclose information about additional heart attacks in a Vioxx clinical trial to a prominent medical journal strengthens plaintiffs' cases because it bolsters claims that the company deliberately disguised the pain reliever's risks, experts said. Last Thursday, the New England Journal of Medicine issued an editorial which said at least two authors of a Vioxx study called VIGOR knew at least two weeks before the paper was submitted and 4{ months before it was published that there were three heart attacks not included in the article's data. The absence of the data led to incorrect calculations and conclusions, the editorial said.
December 10, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Merck Vioxx Jury to Continue Deliberations on Monday, (Bloomberg) -- A federal jury deciding whether Merck & Co.'s Vioxx painkiller caused a Florida man's fatal heart attack said it will return next week to keep deliberating in the case. The panel told U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in Houston earlier today that it couldn't reach a unanimous verdict about whether Merck's handling of its Vioxx drug led to Richard ``Dicky'' Irvin's death. Fallon asked jurors to continue deliberations and the group said late today it would return Monday and resume weighing claims in the case.
December 10, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Vioxx witness fired from top posts, The medical school leader criticized Merck recently at a federal trial. He has often warned of the pain reliever | A cardiologist who testified at a federal trial in Houston that Merck & Co. Inc.'s Vioxx pain reliever posed an "extraordinary risk" of causing heart attacks has been removed from two leadership positions at the Cleveland Clinic medical school. Eric Topol, 51, criticized Merck in testimony Dec. 3 at the trial of a lawsuit by the widow of Richard "Dicky" Irvin, who blames her husband's fatal heart attack on Vioxx. Two days later, Topol was removed as provost and chief academic officer at the medical school. He remains chairman of the clinic's cardiovascular medicine department.
December 8, 2005
New England Journal Charges Merck Deleted Vioxx Study Data, THURSDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- The editors at one of the world's leading medical journals have accused researchers and Vioxx manufacturer Merck & Co. of withholding key heart risk data that showed up in one of the first large trials of the now-withdrawn arthritis painkiller. Specifically, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine charged that a major study published in November 2000 was submitted to the journal after information about three heart attacks among Vioxx trial participants was deleted by Merck, which funded the study.
December 8, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Closing arguments today in Federal Vioxx trial in Houston, Merck rested its case yesterday after a pathologist testified the painkiller played no role in the 2001 fatal heart attack of "Dicky" Irvin of Florida. Widow Evelyn Irvin Plunkett claims Merck failed to issue safety warnings about Vioxx, which her 53-year-old husband had taken for about one month. Doctor Thomas Wheeler with Baylor College of Medicine's pathology department earlier testified Vioxx did not contribute to Irvin's death.
December 8, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Federal VIOXX Case Jury to Begin Deliberations Today, HOUSTON - Closing arguments were set for this morning in the first federal trial against Merck & Co. over its painkiller Vioxx. Jurors are expected to begin deliberating later today.
December 7, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Merck rests its defense case in Vioxx trial, HOUSTON -- Merck & Co. rested its case Wednesday in the first federal trial involving the painkiller Vioxx after a pathologist testified that the drug played no role in a man's fatal heart attack. Closing arguments were set for Thursday in the trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, whose 53-year-old husband Richard "Dicky" Irvin died in 2001 after taking Vioxx for back pain for a month. She says Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck failed to issue safety warnings and that Vioxx caused his heart attack.
December 6, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Widow: Husband Was Healthy Before Fatal Heart Attack, POSTED: 8:11 am CST December 6, 2005,
HOUSTON -- A 53-year-old former college football player was "a big, strong, healthy guy" when he died unexpectedly of a heart attack after taking the painkiller Vioxx for a month, his widow testified Monday in the trial of her federal lawsuit against Merck & Co.
December 6, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
At Merck, 'agony' over Vioxx - Edward Scolnick told colleagues of his concern while he was head of research labs, HOUSTON - While president of Merck Research Laboratories, Edward Scolnick told some colleagues he was in "minor agony" about whether the pain-reliever Vioxx led to heart attacks, according to a videotaped deposition played for jurors yesterday in the nation's first federal trial involving the drug.
December 5, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Ex-Merck exec worried about Vioxx safety, The then-president of Merck Research Laboratories told some colleagues he was in "minor agony" about whether the painkiller Vioxx led to heart attacks, according to a videotaped deposition played for jurors Monday in the nation's first federal trial involving the drug.
December 5, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Testimony: Vioxx linked to increase in heart attacks, Houston Chronicle, The former top scientist at Merck testified today that he initially concluded an internal study of Vioxx linked the drug to an increase in heart attacks and strokes less than a year after it was approved for sale.
December 2, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Vioxx patient's death cost family $402K, The family of the deceased at the center of the first federal Vioxx trial suffered at least $402,373 in economic losses when he died, according to a witness that testified Friday. Economist Frederick Raffa said he reached the figure by combining estimates of how much Richard "Dicky" Irvin would have earned to support his family and the value of services he provided around the house.
December 2, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Expert: Vioxx Use Causes Heart Attacks, Expert in Vioxx Case Testifies Drug Causes Heart Attacks No Matter Length of Use, Size of Dose, HOUSTON Dec 2, 2005, After about three hours of cross examination by a Merck & Co. lawyer, a witness for the widow of a man who died after taking Vioxx reiterated Friday his belief that the drug causes heart attacks regardless of the length of use or of the size of dose.
December 1, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Witness Says Vioxx a Factor in Man's Death, HOUSTON -- Only two days into the Vioxx trial, jurors were hearing testimony on a key question in the case. What caused the blood clot that killed 53-year-old Richard "Dicky" Irvin of St. Augustine, Fla.? Irvin died in May 2001 when the clot suddenly obstructed the flow of blood from his heart. He had been taking Vioxx for a little less than a month. Irvin's case represents Vioxx's first federal trial.
December 1, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Vioxx victim said at low risk for heart attack, DEC. 1 3:07 P.M. ET The deceased at the center of the first federal Vioxx trial was at low risk for a heart attack and his blocked artery didn't need invasive treatment, according to a doctor who testified Thursday.
December 1, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Doctor says Vioxx can cause heart attacks, An expert witness testified Thursday that he believes Vioxx can cause heart attacks and can trigger an event in less than a month.
November 30, 2005 (First Federal VIOXX Trial in Houston, TX)
Doctor: Vioxx was factor in man's death, NOV. 30 5:06 P.M. ET Merck & Co.'s former blockbuster drug Vioxx helped cause a blood clot that triggered the fatal heart attack of a Florida man, a pathologist testified on W
