Court upholds Vioxx class action against Merck

[Celebration]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-03-31T190926Z_01_N31109969_RTRUKOC_0_US-MERCK-RULING.xml&archived=False

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey appellate court on Friday upheld a judge's decision to certify a national class action against Merck & Co. Inc. for some cases involving the drugmaker's withdrawn pain medicine Vioxx, attorneys representing plaintiffs said.

The Appellate Division decided that New Jersey Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee properly exercised her discretion in certifying a nationwide class, consisting of non-governmental health plans that paid for members' Vioxx prescriptions.

Merck is facing nearly 10,000 lawsuits from people who claim to have been harmed by Vioxx and accuse Merck of knowing about increased heart risks associated with the medicine long before it pulled the drug from the market.

This suit is seeking to recover losses incurred in purchasing the painkiller for health plans. The third-party payors would be entitled to triple damages if successful on their claims, attorneys from the law firm Seeger Weiss LLP said.

[Warpy]

1. Good. I hope they win.

The problem isn't that a dangerous side effect wasn't known until the drug went into wide circulation. The problem is that Merck SUPPRESSED that information for YEARS after they'd been alerted by physicians, hospitals and pharmacists that there was a real problem with long term use.

I don't know how those executives sleep at night. Even booze and Ambien is ineffective after a couple of weeks of steady use.