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A New Jersey jury ruled against Merck & Co. in the pivotal Vioxx trial, finding that the drug company did not adequately warn patients of the dangers of Vioxx.
After a two-day deliberation, the jurors found Merck liable for the heart attack suffered by John McDarby in 2004. McDarby and Thomas Cona, who also had a heart attack he believed was a result of Vioxx, filed a joint lawsuit against the drug company last year. The lawsuit was of particular interest because it was the first dealing with long-term Vioxx use.
The jury awarded McDarby, who took Vioxx for four years, $3 million in monetary damages and his wife received an additional $1.5 million.
Another one-day trial will be held Thursday to determine whether Merck will be forced to pay punitive damages to McDarby. The law would cap the damages verdict at $22.5 million.
However, Cona, who claimed he had taken Vioxx for two years, was not awarded any compensation and is not eligible for punitive damages because only three prescriptions for the drug were found.
Though Cona will not receive monetary damages, plaintiff attorneys W. Mark Lanier and Robert Gordon say they are pleased with the outcome of the trial. “This verdict is a victory of 100,000 Americans who had heart attacks from Vioxx,” Gordon said. “This is a victory for the tens and thousands of doctors who were lied to by Merck about the dangers of Vioxx.”
In a separate ruling, jurors found Merck guilty of consumer fraud by misleading physicians about the fatal side effects of Vioxx. McDarby received $12,000 in damages, which is triple what he paid for the drug prescriptions. While Cona won’t get any compensation, he was awarded $135, three times his spending on prescriptions, for the consumer fraud award.
The consumer fraud verdict will also require Merck to pay some of the attorney fees for the trial. Additionally, the findings can cause a huge impact on another New Jersey fraud lawsuit brought against Merck by insurance companies and health plans.
Last year, 9,600 product liability lawsuits were filed against Merck, which represented 19,000 groups of plaintiffs. “Merck must dissect the loss and retool its trial strategy for the next round,” said Peter Bicks, a defense lawyer who has followed the trial closely.
Merck pulled Vioxx off the market in 2004 after studies revealed the drug significantly heightened the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients who took Vioxx longer than 18 months. More than 20 million people across the nation were prescribed the drug between 1999 and 2004. Experts believe approximately 100,000 patients may have suffered heart attacks as a result of the Vioxx.
Lawyers predict the plaintiff victory in the Vioxx trial will cause the number of personal injury lawsuits to soar.