Merck Loses Second Vioxx Trial

After a long silence, finally there’s news about Vioxx (from a AP article published today):

NEW ORLEANS - Merck & Co. lost the second federal trial over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx on Thursday and must pay $51 million to a retired FBI agent who had a heart attack after taking the drug for more than two years, a jury decided.

The jury found that Merck & Co. “knowingly misrepresented or failed to disclose” information about the drug to retired FBI agent Gerald Barnett’s doctors. It said Barnett should get $50 million in compensatory damages.

Then, after hearing more arguments, the jurors added a $1 million punitive damage award, finding that Merck “acted in wanton, malicious, willful or reckless disregard for the plaintiff’s rights.”

So, the first federal trial was held twice — the first deadlocked and was declared a mistrial, while the second ended with a verdict for Merck.

What made this one different? It could have been the fact that the jury was made up of 8 older men who sympathized with the plaintiff (himself an older man).

Two federal Merck trials down, thousands of federal Merck trials to go…