$4.85 BILLION SETTLEMENT ANNOUNCED
The Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx®, announced a proposed settlement of the claims for heart attacks and strokes caused by Vioxx®. For further details, contact us and see officialvioxxsettlement.com.

Our firm represents men and women who have been injured because they took Vioxx® for arthritic and other pain. The manufacturer, Merck, announced its withdrawal of Vioxx® on September 30, 2004, citing studies which demonstrated that users of Vioxx® were at much higher risk for adverse cardio-vascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. As many as 27,000 heart attacks are suspected to have resulted from Vioxx®.

The FDA approved Vioxx® in 1999 for the reduction of pain and inflammation caused by osteoarthritis, as well as for acute pain in adults and for the treatment of menstrual pain. It was the second of a new kind of NSAID (Cox-2 selective) approved by FDA. Subsequently, FDA approved Vioxx® to treat the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in adults and children.

Investigation to date demonstrates Merck had ample evidence to warn of the dangers of Vioxx®. Notwithstanding that evidence Merck marketed the drug heavily and reaped huge profits. Vioxx® was introduced in 1999 and its own internal documents suggest it was well aware of the risks of the drug even before its introduction.

The Lancet (requires free registration to view article), a highly regarded British medical journal claims that Merck was aware of cardiovascular risks relating to Vioxx® in 2000, four years before making its decision to recall the drug. The article states that Vioxx® should have been withdrawn in 2000 when the risks were first discovered. In a commentary accompanying The Lancet article, editor Richard Horton calls the licensing and use of Vioxx®“public health catastrophes”, and called for further investigations. “Why clinical investigators studying Vioxx® did not do more to raise concerns is a fair question that needs to be answered,” he writes. “But in doing so, we must not diminish the importance of the covenant of trust that society has established with powerful commercial and governmental institutions. For with Vioxx®, Merck and the FDA acted out of ruthless, short-sighted, and irresponsible self-interest.”

We have also filed a medical monitoring class action on behalf of all residents of the state of Washington that have used Vioxx®. The purpose of the lawsuit is to force Merck to pay for all necessary diagnostic and other medical procedures that may be necessary for consumers of the drug, even if they are not now symptomatic and have not sustained any injury. The class action also seeks a judgment requiring Merck to all Washington consumers the money spent to purchase the drug. It is claimed that Merck acted negligently in marketing the drug, failed to provide adequate warnings and ignored the evidence of its own tests about the dangers Vioxx®.

For more information about this litigation, please contact us.