Merck Could Face 100,000 Vioxx Cases
A federal judge told dozens of lawyers crowded into a courtroom in New Orleans on Monday that there could ultimately be as many as 100,000 cases filed against Merck & Co. over its now-withdrawn pain reliever Vioxx, and that he could hear a case as early as the fall.
More than 2,000 cases have been filed against the drug maker so far. The pretrial issues for federal cases are being handled by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, and lawyers from both sides met Monday for a monthly status conference.
Analysts have estimated that Merck’s potential liability could reach $18 billion. Merck withdrew Vioxx in September after a study showed that it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in people taking the drug longer than 18 months.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys are squabbling with Merck over records of thousands of company employees engaged in marketing the drug.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers want details on Merck employees who marketed the drug. A lawyer for Merck told the court Monday that it would be “tremendously burdensome” to provide the information.
The lead plaintiffs’ lawyer, Russell Herman, countered afterward that Merck’s sales representatives were “told to dodge” potentially awkward questions. Plaintiffs cite an internal Merck document with instructions to the representatives, referred to as “Dodge Ball Vioxx” in a court filing.
The lead Merck lawyer, Phillip Wittmann, suggested that it would be more reasonable to look at Merck employees on a case-by-case basis.
Meanwhile, the plaintiffs also are trying to extract information from the Food and Drug Administration, which regulated the drug and has been blamed for lax oversight.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have complained that the FDA has not been forthcoming with requested information. Meetings between lawyers for both sides and FDA officials are slated for this week, with additional meetings scheduled for next month.
Fallon told the lawyers Monday that he wanted the cases to move along and suggested that trials in his court might be held by next fall. The drug company has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to defend itself.
The first cases are set to be heard in state courts -- Texas in July and New Jersey in August.
The delicate process of coordinating the federal suits with the state cases was underscored Monday by the presence in the courtroom of state court judges from those two states as well as Alabama, where one case already has been postponed.
