Next VIOXX-Merck trial set to get under way

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see also Vioxx Trial; Vioxx Lawsuit Closing arguments in NJ Vioxx trial

now seen Tuesday ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (MarketWatch) -- Closing arguments are

expected to get under way Tuesday morning in a ...

www.coreynahman.com/vioxx_lawsuit.html - 91k -

 

Will Merck Survive Vioxx? - November 1, 2004 Over the next five

years Vioxx also became one of the great triumphs of direct-to-consumer

marketing ... as Vioxx lawsuits pile up and trials get under way. ...

money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/11/01/8189593/index.htm -

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Vioxx jury awards $253 million in damages Juror says they wanted to

get a message across; caps under law will cut amount ... The next Vioxx trial is

scheduled to begin next month in New Jersey. ...

www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3318293.html

Next Vioxx trial set to get under way in New Orleans

 

Next Vioxx trial set to get under way AP

 

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 10, 6:45 PM ET

 

 

NEW ORLEANS - The next federal Vioxx trial, which opens in federal court

here on Monday, focuses on a man who began taking the painkiller after its label

said that it could increase the risk of heart attacks.

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But Robert Garry Smith, 56, said he didn't realize the drug, once a

blockbuster for Merck & Co., might have brought on his February 2003 heart

attack until he saw a lawyer's television advertisement in 2005.

" I was a perfectly healthy man until I took Vioxx and I had a heart attack, "

Smith, a maintenance supervisor at a chemical plant in the Cincinnati suburb of

Covington, Ky., said in a pretrial deposition.

The other nine plaintiffs whose cases have been heard so far in state and

federal courts all began taking Vioxx before April 2002, when Merck added

information in the label's " precautions " section to say that using the drug

could increase the risk of heart attacks.

The questions of whether that information should have been in the stronger

" warnings " section, and whether Merck should have added it two years earlier,

have played major parts in those trials.

About 16,000 Vioxx lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts, and

Merck has said it wants each case heard on its own. However, U.S. District Judge

Eldon Fallon has said he wants to work out a global settlement for the 5,700

federal Vioxx cases on his docket after hearing just five of them.

After the first verdict came in, Fallon had lawyers for the plaintiffs and for

Merck each choose two other cases for early trial in his court. Smith's case is

the second of this group of four, and the first that was chosen by Merck.

Seven other cases have been heard in state courts in Texas, New Jersey and

California. Merck has won five cases and lost four overall, with one victory and

one defeat before Fallon.

However, a New Jersey judge overturned an early Merck victory in state court,

saying fresh evidence warranted a new trial. It was not clear whether the new

evidence would affect the federal court verdict for Merck.

In the second case heard by Fallon, Gerald Barnett was a plaintiffs' poster

boy: a trim, fit man who had passed FBI physicals for 27 years and continued

to watch his diet and to exercise daily after retiring.

As Barnett's attorney pointed out repeatedly, he was considered to have a 2

percent chance of a heart attack until he had one after taking Vioxx for 2 1/2

years. His doctor testified that if he had known about the drug's dangers, he

would have taken Barnett off the drug.

Jurors found Merck liable in that case and ordered the company to pay $51

million, though Fallon has ordered a new trial on damages.

Smith, Merck's choice for an early trial, is 6 feet tall and 255 pounds —

clinically obese by accepted medical standards. He never drank or smoked,

according to his plaintiff's profile, but other pretrial filings indicate his

family did have a history of cardiovascular problems.

Smith also took Vioxx for a relatively short time. Because he started six

months after the heart attack " precaution " was added to the label, Merck tried

to get Fallon to throw out allegations Merck dragged its feet about adding the

information. Fallon rejected that request.

Smith, who has worked at an Interplastic Corp. plant since 1987, was taking

Vioxx for pain from a knee injured in a softball game in 1998. He had taken

other painkillers until October 2002, when the knee was operated on.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs accused Merck late Thursday of trying to sweeten

the jury pool with an ad campaign aimed at making people think well of the

company.

" Merck is going around the back door, hoping to get folks to forget about this

killer drug and, instead, think a bunch of nice warm thoughts about the company

that manufactures it, " a news release quoted steering committee spokesman Russ

Herman as saying.

Asked why attorneys hadn't asked Fallon to stop the campaign, Herman declined

to say more than was in the news release. Merck said its advertising was " part

a national program, designed to increase awareness of the company's

extraordinary contributions in improving the health of people worldwide. The ad

series running now was first submitted to the FDA more than two years ago and is

not connected to any litigation. " A judge would be unlikely to order the ads

out of newspapers and off the air, said Howard Erichson, a law professor at

Seton Hall University. " Companies have a right to speak, including advertising

and including image advertising, " he said. Besides, he noted, potential

members of the jury pool already have been exposed to attorneys' ads. " From

plaintiffs' lawyers ads, the public hears, `If you've taken this drug, call your

doctor and call us to be your lawyers, " Erichson said. " They get one image of

the litigation. " And from the company they see the

image advertising, hear about what a great company it is, and get a different

image, " Erichson said. " I think, to a great extent, those wash out. "

 

 

 

 

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