The more information trickles out about Merck’s knowledge of the risks of Vioxx, the worse the company looks. NPR has a great piece about Merck’s efforts to publish articles that downplayed the risk of heart attack and stroke due to Vioxx use. Listen to the story here (follow the link,…
Here is an interesting article about the first Vioxx case that has made it to trial. Look at the article’s description of the defense team: “Judging from its lawyers involved in Ernst, Merck should have its own gallery of litigation support. Leading the case as co-chairs are Fulbright & Jaworski…
Merck tried – and failed – to postpone the first Vioxx trial. The case will be tried starting next week in rural Texas courtroom. Merck said they sought a continuance because of pre-trial publicity. The judge said he would not grant a continuance before looking responses to the jury questionaires.…
Thanks to Robert Ambrogi for telling us about an interesting study from the Rand Corporation. Rand studied asbestos payments, and found that 42 cents of every dollar went to victims, 27 cents went to their lawyers, and 31 cents went to defense costs. See an executive summary of the study…
The problems with Guidant’s defibrillators continue. On Saturday, Guidant issued another warning about five more of its defibrillators. These five are in addition to the seven defibrillator models that Guidant recalled earlier last week. Guidant says that doctors “should discontinue implants of these devices pending further notice.” It appears that…
The first Vioxx trial will occur next month in Texas. Mark Lanier is the lawyer for the plaintiff; his client is the widow of a 59 year old triathlete who died in his sleep. He had been taking Vioxx for about 6 months. Mark has a great reputation. It should…
The good news is that the FDA has recalled Guidant defibrillators. Here is the press release that discusses the recall and lists the models that are being recalled. Somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 people are affected by the recall. It is known that two people have died because of a…
I wrote on May 24th about Guidant Corporation. Not surprisingly, Guidant has been hit with class action suits concerning its defective defibrillators; read the accompanying article. This suit does not appear to include people whose loved ones who have already died because of a malfunction of the device; however, I…
A settlement has been announced in the products liability cases involving the drug Zyprexia. This drug is alleged to cause diabetes and other serious health conditions. About 7000 lawsuits concerning the drug are pending. Plaintiffs have a right to opt out of the settlement, which was negotiated between a steering…
Do you remember when the drug companies told us that they were going to release more data about clinical drug trials? That was a year ago. The New York Times has taken a look at the record developed over the last year and discovered that some drug companies are not…