Class Action Over Vioxx Approved by Judge

A New Jersey judge ruled that health plans that paid for members’ Vioxx prescriptions can sue drug maker Merck & Co. as a class to recover billions of dollars they spent on the recalled painkiller.

Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee in Atlantic City granted a motion filed by a labor union health plan to allow a nationwide class-action lawsuit to proceed under the state’s consumer fraud act. Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., had opposed the motion.

The welfare fund of an engineers union had sued Merck in early 2003, arguing that its health plan would not have covered Vioxx prescriptions but for Merck’s deception about its risks. Merck voluntarily pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004, when research showed that the drug increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Merck shares fell 23 cents to $31.06 before the judge’s ruling.