Vioxx lawsuit....any bets on this outcome?

[Guest guest]

So here we are again.....can anyone guess what is going to happen on appeal with this one?

I can take a good guess...there's a good chance it will look like the breast implant litigation all over again...

http://news./s/nm/health_merck_vioxx_dc

Texas Jury awards $253 mln in Vioxx trial

By Matt Daily Fri Aug 19, 6:34 PM ET

ANGLETON, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas jury on Friday found drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK - news) negligent in the death of a man taking its popular painkiller Vioxx and awarded his widow $253 million in the first of thousands of Vioxx lawsuits to go to trial.

The stunning verdict was certain to be greatly reduced under Texas law, but Merck's stock fell sharply as investors feared it could set a precedent for more than 4,200 lawsuits charging that the company hid the drug's' health risks.

Merck pulled the drug off the market in September last year, saying its long-term usage could double users' risks of heart attack or stroke.

Merck shares fell $2.35, or 7.73 percent, to $28.06 and put a damper on the Dow, which ended up just 4.3 points to 10559.23.

The case filed by widow Carol Ernst charged that Vioxx had caused her husband, Ernst, a 59-year-old marathoner, to die of a heart attack in 2001.

Merck disputed the accusation, saying Ernst died of irregular heartbeat and clogged arteries, but the 12-member jury in Texas state court awarded $24 million to Carol Ernst for mental anguish and loss of companionship and $229 million in punitive damages.

Merck attorney Skidmore said the company would appeal the decision, but estimated that even if it is upheld the punitive damages would be trimmed to less than $2 million.

Texas law limits punitive awards to two times economic damage -- in this case $450,000 -- plus up to another $750,000. There is no financial limit for loss of companionship and mental anguish.

At the reading of the verdict in the six-week-long trial, the courtroom erupted in an uproar and Ernst broke into tears. Her lawyer, Mark Lanier, leaped up and shouted "Amen."

"They knew and could see what the truth was," she told reporters.

Lanier urged Merck to settle the pending Vioxx lawsuits, not fight them.

"Merck sure ought to come to the table and accept its responsibility," he said. Lanier vowed to file more lawsuits against Merck and "pound them again."

Merck general counsel Frazier said the company believes it has "strong points to raise on appeal" and would fight on, not settle.

"There are other Vioxx cases coming to trial, and we will vigorously defend them one by one over the coming years," he said.

Skidmore said Merck's appeal would be based on, among other things, scientific arguments.

"There is no reliable scientific evidence that shows Vioxx causes cardiac arrhythmia, which an autopsy showed was the cause of Mr. Ernst's death," he said.

Juror Derick Chizer, 43, said the jury, which deliberated almost two days, knew their award would probably be cut, but felt Merck needed a jolt to change its ways.

"That ($229 million award) was a message to them," he said. The arthritis drug had been taken by about 20 million people at the time of its recall and contributed more than $2.5 billion in sales for Merck in 2003, about 10 percent of the company's total revenue. Vioxx is the trade name for rofecoxib, part of a class of drugs called

NSAIDs. A type of painkiller known as a COX-2 inhibitor, it was touted as a pain and inflammation reliever that did not cause ulcers or gastrointestinal bleeding, a side effect of many NSAIDs.

Due to the pending lawsuits, Merck, based in Whitehouse, New Jersey, said at the end of last year it had set aside $675 million to help cover legal costs. Wall Street analysts, who have been closely watching the case in Angleton, a small town about 40 miles south of Houston, say Merck's liability in all the cases could run into billions of dollars. "It's clearly a 10- to 12-year problem," said LeCroy, an analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder. "It will cost them at least $1 billion a year for the next 10 years." Lawyer Jerry Reisman, a class action attorney in Garden City, New York, said the case also may prompt many more lawsuits. "If the Ernst family is successful in this suit, Merck will find others piling on and joining class action suits," he said. "This case can send shock waves through the pharmaceutical industry." (Additional reporting by Davies and Herb Lash in New York, Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, Erwin Seba and Mark Babineck in Houston) __________________________________________________