Accidental Vioxx Deaths & Vioxx Class-Action Suits

“Accidental” Vioxx Deaths During Research Studies

October 14th, 2005
by Christy Patrick

Even though the number of Vioxx users that died during research studies was triple the number who died on placebos, researchers did not worry because many of the deaths were “accidental”.

Researcher Saw No Vioxx Warning Sign;
Merck Official Says Deaths Were From a Variety of Causes
The Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY - A lawyer for the Idaho postal worker who blames Vioxx for his September 2001 heart attack grilled a Merck & Co. researcher Wednesday about why the company did not alert doctors over deaths among certain Vioxx users five months earlier. In Vioxx’s second product-liability trial, attorney David Buchanan questioned researcher Dr. Alise Reicin about death rates of people in clinical studies meant to see if Vioxx could also be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. While three times as many Vioxx users in those studies died than people taking placebos, or inactive pills, Reicin said some Vioxx users died from accidents, and rates of cardiovascular trouble were the same among the two groups. “We didn’t view it as a safety signal because the deaths were so different,” she testified. Buchanan represents Frederick Humeston, 60, who suffered a heart attack in his Boise home four years ago after taking Vioxx intermittently for two months to ease lingering knee pain. Merck, which in August was hit with a multimillion-dollar verdict when it lost a Vioxx trial in Texas, says Humeston’s job stress and health risks, not Vioxx, caused his heart attack. The company faces thousands more such lawsuits. Reicin said some Vioxx users in the Alzheimer’s studies died after they stopped taking the drug, while others died of pneumonia, car crashes and other accidents, according to Merck data. Full Story




Breakdown of Vioxx suits
September 4th, 2005 by Nancy Callahan

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 lawsuits pending but not yet consolidated with the others in what’s called multidistrict litigation
• More than 250 cases pending in California state courts.
• About 2,475 cases pending and coordinated under one judge in Atlantic County, New Jersey.
• More than 200 cases pending in state courts elsewhere.

The above categories include 148 potential class-action cases, which could eventually include many plaintiffs if judges certify them as class actions. A handful of those cases involve union health plans, insurers and other third-party payers to seek reimbursement of money they paid for Vioxx for their prescription plan members. One such class action suit filed by a New Jersey union has been certified.