Australians are launching a class action against Merck over Vioxx: More than 400 Australians have launched a class action for personal damages from the manufacturers of the anti-arthritis drug, Vioxx. The drug has been found to increase the risk of stroke and heart attacks, and was globally recalled in September last year. Law firm Slater…
Category Archives: Cox-2 Inhibitors
Pfizer starting huge Celebrex study
BusinessWeek Online is reporting that Pfizer is searching for a definitive answer on celebrex by funding a “multiyear, $100 million study to finally find out if the painkiller is safe.” “The study, being run independently by the clinic, will compare three drugs: Celebrex (the Cox-2 drug from Pfizer), ibuprofen (sold under the brand name Motrin),…
Vioxx study data knowingly skewed
An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine claims that “authors of a study funded by Vioxx maker Merck & Co. failed to disclose in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000 that three additional patients in a clinical study suffered heart attacks while using the now-withdrawn painkiller,” according…
News on the upcoming Vioxx trial
Vioxx users will challenge safety claims, according to Yahoo! News: HOUSTON – Whether the once-popular painkiller Vioxx can be lethal if taken for just a few weeks will be the crux of the first federal trial concerning the drug’s safety, plaintiff’s lawyers said Wednesday. Jere Beasley and Andy Birchfield, the Montgomery, Ala., lawyers representing the…
Class action kings move to NY
TheLawyer.com is reporting that “Houston-based Lanier Law Firm has launched in New York with four lawyers, with the aim of expanding the presence to eclipse its headquarters within three years.” Officially opened today (16 November), the mid-town Manhattan office of the class action specialists will be overseen by resident head Richard Meadow, who will be…
Next Vioxx case will be tough for Merck, lawyers say
AP Business Writer Linda A. Johnson reports: TRENTON, N.J. – The next Vioxx product-liability case to come to trial in New Jersey will likely be a tougher battle for manufacturer Merck & Co., which last week got its first courtroom victory in a case involving short-term use of the now-withdrawn painkiller. New Jersey Superior Court…
Asbestos bill meeting next Thursday
Here’s the latest on the asbestos bill, from TheHill.com: An upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on asbestos-injury-liability reform will give Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) a chance to counter a critical report about his bill and rejuvenate his effort to move the legislation forward. The hearing, scheduled for next Thursday, could be viewed as a response…
Merck heads to the feds over Vioxx
Here’s the latest on the Vioxx debacle: HOUSTON – With Merck & Co. now 1-and-1 in state lawsuits over its Vioxx painkiller, the nation’s No. 5 drug maker may face higher stakes later this month in the first federal trial of charges that it knowingly rushed a potentially lethal drug to market to pocket billions…
Breakdown of Vioxx suits
Here’s a breakdown of the Vioxx-related suits filed so far: More than 5,000 product liability lawsuits, nearly all of them personal injury lawsuits, have been filed against Merck. They include: _1,811 federal lawsuits consolidated for pretrial coordination to streamline steps common to the cases, such as document gathering and witness depositions. _More than 290 federal…
Class Action Could Mean Billion-Dollar Exposure for Merck
A new Law.com article (reprinted from the New Jersey Law Journal) is discussing how NJ’s Consumer Fraud Act will be bad news for Merck: After Merck & Co.’s devastating loss in Texas several weeks ago in the first Vioxx case to go to a jury, the nation’s eyes now turn to Atlantic City, where New…