Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7200
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Publication type: news
Judge slashes damages in Vioxx case: Jury had awarded family of 71-year-old Texas man $32 million but judge cuts that by about three-quarters.
CNN Money 2006 Dec 21
http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/21/news/companies/bc.merck.vioxx.texas2.reut/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Abstract:
A Texas judge slashed a jury award against Merck & Co. to about $8.7 million over its withdrawn Vioxx painkiller, according to documents provided Thursday by the company.
A jury in Starr County, Texas had awarded $32 million in April to the family of a 71-year-old man, Leonel Garza, who had taken the drug. A judgment by Judge Alex Gabert entered Dec. 21 reduced the punitive damages in the case, pursuant to state limits, according to the documents.
Garza died in 2001 after taking Vioxx less than a month for arthritis.
“The Garza family is very pleased that judge Gabert has entered a judgment based upon the jury verdict in accordance with the law,” said Kathryn Snapka, co-lead counsel for the Garza family.
Merck intends to file a motion for a new trial based on the evidence the company said it uncovered of an improper financial relationship between the plaintiff and one of the jurors, said Tilden Katz, a spokeswoman for Merck’s outside legal counsel.
Merck is facing more than 27,000 lawsuits from people who claim to have been harmed by the once $2.5 billion-a-year drug. Vioxx was pulled off the market in September 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients taking it for at least 18 months.
The New Jersey-based drugmaker has insisted it will fight each lawsuit case by case, rather than submit to any kind of broad settlement agreement.
Of the Vioxx trials that have reached a jury verdict thus far, Merck has won eight and lost four. An additional Merck victory in New Jersey was overturned by the judge and will be retried.
A Los Angeles jury was also mulling a decision Friday involving two plaintiffs whose Vioxx cases had been tried together.
Shares of Merck ended little changed on the New York Stock Exchange. Rival Pfizer (Charts) saw its stock fall about 0.5 percent, Eli Lilly sank 1.1 percent, and Schering-Plough (Charts) lost 0.7 percent. Bristol-Myers bucked the trend and rose 1.1 percent.
