Merck wins the second Vioxx trial. “After deliberating for less than eight hours over three days, the jury cleared Merck of allegations it failed to warn consumers about the drug’s risks and engaged in ‘unconscionable commercial practices’ in marketing it to doctors and their patients . . .

. . . Merck repeatedly reminded jurors that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved it as safe and effective on four occasions for use against different types of pain, the last a month before Merck recalled it.

The company’s lawyers cited Humeston’s elevated blood pressure, weight and stress from an ongoing dispute he was having with his U.S. Postal Service bosses, saying they were to blame for his heart attack, not Vioxx.

The night before the heart attack, Humeston was called by his personal physician in response to an office visit by Postal Service fraud investigators in which they showed him a secretly-recorded videotape of Humeston working on a car at his home.”

More to come.

Prev
Next