Merck to Pay $4.85 Billion!

Dan Frith

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New Jersey-based Merck, the maker of the painkiller Vioxx, has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits in one of the largest civil cases ever. The proposed settlement becomes binding only if the majority of those plaintiffs agree to drop their cases. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say Merck misled patients about the safety of Vioxx.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market Sept. 30, 2004 after its researchers determined the arthritis treatment, then pulling in about $2.5 billion a year, doubled risk of heart attacks and strokes. Company officials estimated the deal, if accepted, would end 45,000 to 50,000 personal injury lawsuits involving U.S. Vioxx users who suffered a heart attack or ischemic stroke, the type in which blood flow to the brain is blocked.

This settlement, if accepted, will only begin to compensate those individuals whose lives have been irreversibly damaged by the use of Vioxx.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Drugs, Medical Devices and Implants.