Drugmaker Merck & Co. will start cutting checks for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx next month
A former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday praised a recently enacted plan to overhaul the monitoring of drug safety in the United States.
What we said In "Merck Is on the Mend" (Feb. 5), we recommended a second look at the pharma giant, which was recovering from the low it reached in 2004 amid the Vioxx debacle. We mentioned that Merck was winning approvals for a host of new drugs, including cervical-cancer vaccine Gardasil. We cited Bear Stearns analyst John Boris's year-end price target of $53.
During its heyday in the 1970s, Merck earned a reputation among scientists as "the Harvard of the pharmaceutical industry." It may no longer be, but at least today, the company's legal department is looking like Harvard Law.
Merck & Co. announced Friday that it will pay $4.85 billion to settle as claims by as many as 47,000 groups of plaintiffs over injuries linked to its blockbuster Vioxx painkiller.
updated: Fri Nov 09 2007 13:29:00
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen discusses the risk of future heart disease in children, as well as signs of a heart attack.
updated: Thu Sep 06 2007 05:29:00
Health Minute: Hepatitis C
In a major legal victory for Merck & Co. in its massive Vioxx litigation, New Jersey's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a potential class-action lawsuit that could have cost the drugmaker up to $18 billion.
Merck has enjoyed a strong comeback since the messy Vioxx blowout nearly three years ago. But you might be surprised by how well Merck has done since it pulled its arthritis drug from the market.
The increased heart risk from using Vioxx, Merck & Co.'s withdrawn arthritis medicine, begins much earlier than 18 months, according to a study that contradicts assertions made by the drugmaker and its scientists.
Heart risks associated with Merck's painkiller Vioxx began much sooner than the company has claimed, The Wall Street Journal Online reported Tuesday, citing a new study.
The moment of truth has come for Arcoxia, Merck's arthritis painkiller intended to replace the withdrawn drug Vioxx.
Employers should look out for common strains of influenza, which can quickly spread through an organization and severely damage the bottom line - to the tune of nearly $10 billion in paid sick leave nationwide, according a study released Monday by a global outplacement consultant.
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a motion for class-action status for personal injury and wrongful death cases involving Merck's withdrawn Vioxx painkiller.
Merck & Co. said Monday that its arthritis painkiller Arcoxia does not increase the risk of heart attacks, in a study underscoring the difference between this drug and its withdrawn-from-the-market blockbuster Vioxx.
Merck is experimenting with a new arthritis painkiller that could replace Vioxx, the former billion-dollar blockbuster that has proven to be a liability for the company.
Novartis plans to bring a new arthritis painkiller to the U.S. market, but analysts say its similarity to the disgraced drug Vioxx could kill its chances of becoming a billion-dollar blockbuster.
The plaintiff in the next scheduled Vioxx case has dropped her suit against Merck, the drug company said.
This morning Merck announced the number of Vioxx-related lawsuits that had been filed against it as of September 30, 2006. That date is crucial, because it represents the second-year anniversary of the company's withdrawal of Vioxx from the market, and the vast majority of states have either one- or two-year statutes of limitations for personal injury suits. According to Vioxx plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier, only seven states remain with statutes of limitations that have not yet expired. So we're getting close to the grand totals.
To quote Frank Sinatra, Big Pharma stocks are having "a very good year."
A federal judge threw out the $50 million in damages awarded a Vioxx plaintiff in a recent lawsuit against the drugmaker Merck.
Merck was found negligent in the latest Vioxx case, as a jury in New Orleans federal court found that the drugmaker misrepresented the risks of the arthritis painkiller and awarded the plaintiff more than $50 million in damages.
Falling oil prices and Hewlett-Packard's upbeat earnings gave tech stocks a lift Thursday, but the broader market advance was mild after a sharp rally over the last two sessions.
Merck holds the lead in the ongoing legal war against Vioxx plaintiffs, with five wins and three losses, and experts say it's cheaper for the company to keep paying defense lawyers than to buy off plaintiffs in a mass settlement.
Merck was found not liable in the seventh lawsuit over Vioxx, the arthritis painkiller that it pulled from the market because of heart attack risk, the company announced Thursday.
Merck's stock price is starting to climb out of its hole this year, but the drug giant still faces a long uphill climb fraught with obstacles if it ever plans to get to its pre-Vioxx scandal levels.
The latest lawsuit against Merck over its market-pulled painkiller Vioxx debuts this week in a California courtroom, while the drug giant continues to defend itself in a separate trial in New Jersey.
The New England Journal of Medicine posted a correction in its current issue, removing its previously published finding that it takes at least 18 months for heart attack risks to increase from use of Vioxx, the anti-arthritis painkiller that Merck pulled from the market.
Merck, the no. 2 drugmaker in America, said on Tuesday that it made a correction to the study that led to the withdrawal of its arthritis painkiller Vioxx, but that it didn't change the results of the study.
Merck is just weeks away from its next trial over the former blockbuster drug Vioxx, and lawyers from both sides have fresh fodder for the courtroom battle.
Merck is denying news reports that suggest new data from the drug maker indicates Vioxx increased heart attack risks earlier than previously reported and that the risk for stroke persisted long after the patient stopped taking the drug.
New data from drug maker Merck suggests that heart risks associated with painkiller Vioxx begin much earlier than it had previously suggested, said a report published Thursday.
Merck, already in a long fight against thousands of Vioxx lawsuits, will soon face a two-front war, as plaintiffs begin to file suit over a different drug: Fosamax.
A Canadian study involving thousands of Vioxx patients concluded they faced the highest risk of heart attack during the first few weeks of taking Merck's arthritis painkiller.
A jury in a Texas border town found the drug maker Merck liable Friday in the death of a former Vioxx patient.
A New Jersey jury found Merck liable Tuesday of misrepresenting Vioxx to federal regulators, and ordered the drugmaker to pay $9 million in punitive damages to a man who suffered a heart attack after taking the painkiller.
Blue chips slipped Thursday, on worries about inflation amid Treasury bond yields near 4-year highs, gold near a 25-year high and oil prices near $68 a barrel.
Merck stock tumbled Thursday, a day after the nation's No. 2 drugmaker was found liable for the heart attack of a New Jersey man who took Vioxx and a jury awarded $4.5 million in damages.
Stocks struggled Wednesday morning, amid disappointing March sales from retailers and weakness in Merck after a jury handed down a split verdict in its latest Vioxx trial.
A federal judge presiding over thousands of Vioxx lawsuits against Merck on Wednesday dismissed the first case filed by a long-term patient of the painkiller.
Merck & Co. was held liable Wednesday by a New Jersey jury in the heart attack of a 77-year-old man who took the painkiller Vioxx, but not in the one suffered by a 60-year-old plaintiff.
Investors could be looking to oil prices for direction in trading Tuesday following an up and down day to start the new quarter.
A New Jersey appeals court Friday upheld a class-action lawsuit against Merck from some plaintiffs alleging they were misled regarding the risks of the painkiller Vioxx.
Merck & Co. wrapped up its defense in the latest Vioxx product liability trial on Thursday with testimony from a psychiatrist who said one of the plaintiffs who blames the painkiller for his heart attack never mentioned taking it when discussing his medical history.
Mark Lanier, the only lawyer so far to defeat Merck in a Vioxx-related lawsuit, will face off with the drug maker again, but this time Merck has the home field in New Jersey and Lanier will be representing a heart attack survivor, not a widow.
Merck's got three victories and only one loss under its belt in the ongoing Vioxx litigation battle, but the upcoming cases could get a lot tougher.
The truth hurts. What's the No. 1 cause of disability in the U.S.? It's not heart disease (despite the 1.2 million heart attacks that will show up in the E.R. this year). Nor is it addiction (despi...
Will the scorned painkillers Vioxx and Bextra ever get back on the market? Will Celebrex ever shake its black box warning?
The next big battle over Vioxx takes place in New Orleans, a city mired in its own conflicts with nature, the government and itself.
Merck burned through nearly $300 million in 2005 defending itself against Vioxx-related lawsuits and shoring up its legal defenses against future cases, said CEO Richard Clark.
The Garza family faces off against Merck this week in a Texas border town, in the fourth lawsuit to blame Vioxx, the market-pulled painkiller, for causing heart attacks.
The fourth Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. will be held this month in a rural Texas court, the drug giant said Tuesday, and a retrial of the federal case that ended in a hung jury will be held in February in New Orleans.
With Vioxx-related lawsuits increasing, Merck said at an analyst meeting Thursday that it has added up to $1 billion worth of projected cuts to its multibillion dollar plan to slash costs through 2010.
The mistrial in the third Vioxx case gave investors a scare on Monday, but analysts say that it changes little for Merck, which has an improving pipeline but still faces thousands of lawsuits and is unlikely to show real growth for years.
A report from a prestigious medical journal that Merck withheld information about the dangers of Vioxx could lead to new trials both in a federal case currently before the jury and in a state case won by the drug company.
Stocks were looking for direction early Friday, as reports of corporate deals were balanced by disappointing guidance from Intel and higher oil prices.
In a Houston courtroom on Wednesday, a Merck executive denied she pressured a doctor to keep an unfavorable Vioxx story out of a leading medical journal, according to a published news report.
Jury selection began in Houston on Tuesday in the latest high-stakes legal battle for Merck ... and its first in a federal courtroom.
Merck is returning to Texas next week, where it lost its first Vioxx lawsuit in a state court, to fight its third case - now in a federal court - a legal battleground that could be more receptive to the company, say legal experts.
DALLAS (CNN/Money) - Merck's Vioxx, Pfizer's Celebrex and similar painkillers increase the risk of death among patients who have already survived a previous heart attack, especially when taken in high doses, according to data released Sunday at the American Heart Association conference here.
A New Jersey state judge who is overseeing about 3,500 personal-injury lawsuits filed by users of Vioxx says she wants to hear only upcoming cases involving plaintiffs who took the drug for 18 months or longer, according to Ted Mayer, an outside attorney for Vioxx maker Merck & Co.
Mark Lanier, the Houston lawyer who won the first Vioxx lawsuit against Merck in August, said he will make a request in New Jersey Superior Court on Monday to represent the first of some 20,000 plaintiffs.
Merck & Co. was found not liable by a New Jersey jury Thursday in the second Vioxx trial -- a key victory for the troubled drugmaker as it faces thousands of other lawsuits over the painkiller.
Stocks could get a lift early Monday from merger activity and a new drop in the price of oil.
Merck maintains its defense for Vioxx, the beleaguered painkiller that was pulled off the market in 2004 and has been blamed for heart attacks in a growing tally of lawsuits, a top company lawyer said Monday.
The third civil trial involving Vioxx, the arthritis painkiller that Merck pulled from the market last year, has been postponed up to six months, according to plaintiff's lawyer Mark Lanier.
The probability that Merck & Co. Inc.'s arthritis drug Vioxx could lead to heart problems or stroke is very high, an expert witness told a court hearing a closely watched product liability lawsuit.
The jury has been selected in the second Vioxx civil case and opening arguments begin Wednesday in New Jersey superior court.
There will be no global settlement for Vioxx lawsuits against Merck, which now total about 5,000, said Merck's senior vice president and general counsel Kenneth Frazier on Friday.
After falling flat on its face in the first Vioxx trial in Texas, Merck is likely to face a less hostile group of potential jurors when the drugmaker heads to court next week in its home state of New Jersey.
The likely low volume that is typical on a late August Friday appeared to trip up stock investors just before the market open.
Merck's total product liability from Vioxx could reach $50 billion, the stock research firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. said Monday, the largest estimate so far in the drugmaker's ongoing litigation over the once popular painkiller.
Merck has been held liable by a Texas jury in the first lawsuit involving its former blockbuster drug Vioxx, in a case that could have a profound effect on thousands of other cases filed against the company.
Stocks finished nearly flat Friday as soaring oil prices and a guilty verdict in the Merck Vioxx case wiped out earlier gains made on company share upgrades and rising energy stocks.
"Big pharmaceuticals, they're right up there with the arm dealers."
The first Vioxx trial is expected to close next week in Texas, but this is just the beginning of Merck's legal battle against more than 4,000 lawsuits from plaintiffs blaming Vioxx for health problems and untimely deaths.
IT'S HURRICANE SEASON ON THE GULF Coast, and two weeks into the first Vioxx personal-injury trial in Angleton, Texas, drugmaker Merck is facing a category 5 force of nature: W. Mark Lanier, a bigti...
The plaintiff in the first of several thousand Vioxx lawsuits took the stand in a Texas court Thursday and said she is taking antidepressants to alleviate the sorrow from her husband's death.
Merck's lawyers attacked potentially damaging testimony from a medical examiner in the first Vioxx lawsuit and filed a motion Thursday to prevent her from testifying before jurors in a Texas courtroom.
The tally of Vioxx-related lawsuits against drug giant Merck increased dramatically over the last three months, the company said Thursday.
If you're hoping for some good results from the drug sector this week, take an aspirin. With two exceptions, the Street expects the earnings pain among drug makers to continue.
The first Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. begins Monday in a Texas state courtroom and the implications could be huge for the embattled drugmaker.
A Texas judge rejected Merck's request to postpone its July 11 court date for the first in a series of lawsuits involving Vioxx, an arthritis painkiller the company withdrew last year because of health risks, according to a court spokesperson.
The Texas Attorney General sued Merck Thursday, accusing the drug company of misrepresenting the safety of arthritis painkiller Vioxx, the attorney general's office said.
Merck shareholders have already felt the pain of plunging stocks from the Vioxx scandal. As the drug giant faces litigation that could lead to billions of dollars in potential damages, investors should also brace themselves for the possibility of a plunging dividend.
Drug executives won't soon forget the snakebit parade that started last fall when once-mighty Merck yanked its painkiller Vioxx off the market. Then the Food and Drug Administration rejected AstraZ...
Merck & Co. Inc. tried to patent a drug that would reduce heart attack risks for Vioxx users, three years before the company withdrew the painkiller because of safety concerns.
More than a third of online consumers would buy pharmaceutical drugs even if they are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to an international survey by comScore Networks that was conducted after blockbuster arthritis treatment drug Vioxx was pulled from the market.
The hits just keep on coming. Over the past 12 months a number of big-name companies have been caught up in scandals or blunders—maybe not Enron-bad, but bad enough to keep investors off-kilter. Tw...
While the painkillers Celebrex, Bextra, and Vioxx significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular problems, the danger is not great enough to justify taking the drugs off the market, according to an advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration.
Blue chips rose near the close Friday after a U.S. regulatory panel ruled that Merck's Vioxx was safe enough to return to market.
A panel of experts said Friday that Merck & Co. Inc.'s now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx was safe enough to be sold in the United States despite an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Merck & Co. Tuesday reported its worst annual profit since 1998 after pulling Vioxx off the market late last year and boosted the amount it set aside for lawsuits over the recall of the once popular painkiller.
Merck & Co. Inc., reeling from the recent withdrawal of its Vioxx arthritis drug, on Wednesday said 2005 earnings will decline to levels below Wall Street expectations, the third straight year of lower results.
Unless Merck invents a miracle cure for a sagging stock price, the company is going to wind up as the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year.
Vioxx users have another scourge to worry about now: hucksters making false promises on the Internet about the millions of dollars they can get from suing Merck & Co., the drug's maker.
When Merck yanked the arthritis wonder drug Vioxx off shelves this fall, it not only devastated the company's stock and reputation, it raised fears about the safety of every big new drug. After all...
The New York State pension fund sued Merck & Co. Tuesday, claiming to have suffered huge financial losses from the scandal surrounding the drugmaker's Vioxx painkiller.
Drug stocks took another hit Friday, a day after a veteran Food and Drug Administration researcher said that five drugs currently on the market needed closer scrutiny for possible safety risks.
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