WP on the Vioxx litigation

Some common sense talk fueling the fire for tort reform:

Open societies flourish because they are driven by intelligence and information; the U.S. tort system creates an enclave of idiotic whimsy in the heart of the most open society in the world. But the Vioxx litigation does not merely celebrate dumb prejudice. It’s extraordinarily expensive. For this year alone, Merck has set aside a legal war chest of $685 million. The Vioxx lawsuits could eventually cost it between $10 billion and $50 billion.

Did those numbers sink in properly? The midpoint of those estimates — $30 billion — is six times more than the federal government spends annually on cancer research. Or, to put it another way, $30 billion is about five times Merck’s annual earnings, meaning that one of the world’s top pharmaceutical research establishments is fighting for survival. At a time when Americans fret over relative decline in science and business, it’s insane to sink a flagship scientific company in order to line the pockets of unscrupulous lawyers.

(via PointofLaw.com)

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