Merck Facing About 5,000 Vioxx Lawsuits

The tally of lawsuits against Merck & Co. in state and federal court over its painkiller Vioxx is nearly 5,000 and growing, lawyers said in federal court here Thursday, less than a week after the drug maker suffered a stinging defeat in a state court in Texas.

The implications of the loss in the first of the cases to be tried against Merck are still playing out. But a routine monthly meeting here of lawyers and U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon made it clear they expected the number of cases against Merck to grow.

In federal court alone about 1,800 cases have been filed, and Fallon suggested that number could triple. Federal cases have been filed all over the country but have been consolidated here because of Fallon’s expertise in dealing with complicated, large-scale court fights.

Fallon is asking lawyers on both sides of the matter to pick representative cases from four categories of complainants including, potentially, those who suffered strokes and short-term users of Vioxx. The first of the plaintiffs has been chosen: a heart-attack victim from Florida, Richard Irvin Jr., who died in May 2001, one month after he began taking Vioxx for back pain.

The Irvin case starts here Nov. 28 and will be followed by trials Feb. 13, March 13, and April 10, Fallon said. Before the first federal case, however, Merck must weather a trial in New Jersey state court next month and possibly one in Texas in October.

Analysts have criticized Merck’s strategy in the Texas case, in which a jury awarded $253.4 million in damages to the widow of Bob Ernst, who died in 2001 of irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, after taking Vioxx for eight months. Observers said Merck’s case was potentially strong -- no evidence has so far linked Vioxx to arrhythmia -- but that the company relied too heavily on scientific arguments, neglecting human ones.

Merck shares fell 6 cents to $27.77.