BMJ  2007;334:607 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39157.476910.DB

News

Merck appeals rofecoxib verdict

Janice Hopkins Tanne

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Merck will appeal against the decision that a New Jersey state court jury made on 12 March to award compensatory and punitive damages of $47.5m (£24.4m; {euro}35.7m) to an Idaho man, Frederick Humeston, and his wife Mary, for a heart attack he had in 2001, when he was 56.

The damages, awarded after the retrial of an earlier case that Mr Humeston lost, were $18m to Mr Humeston, $2m to his wife, and $27.5 in punitive damages. The jury decided that Merck was negligent in not warning Mr Humeston of the risk of taking rofecoxib (Vioxx).

Merck voluntarily withdrew rofecoxib, a cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitor, from the market on 30 September 2004 because it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes (BMJ 2005;329:816).

Merck faces more than 27 000 lawsuits related to rofecoxib, including about 120 from the United Kingdom. The company has said it will fight each one and . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

What have we learnt from Vioxx?
Harlan M Krumholz, Joseph S Ross, Amos H Presler, and David S Egilman
BMJ 2007 334: 120-123. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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