Published 6 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3225
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3225

News

US judge rules Merck won’t face "punitive damages" in first Fosamax case

Ray Moynihan

1 Melbourne

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

A district court judge in the United States has ruled that the drug maker Merck will not face the risk of "punitive damages" in the first case to be tried involving its widely prescribed osteoporosis drug, Fosamax (alendronate or alendronic acid).

The trial was scheduled to open on Tuesday in New York before Judge John Keenan, and the first case involves Shirley Boles, a woman from Florida who first took the drug in 1997.

Ms Boles is part of a class action of about 800 cases, where plaintiffs are claiming that alendronic acid caused them osteonecrosis of the jaw, and that the maker failed to adequately warn of this risk.

Osteonecrosis of the jaw, also known as dead jaw, is a rare but serious condition associated with the use of bisphosphonates, including alendronic acid, although a causal link remains controversial.

Merck is strongly defending the action, and a spokesperson told . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ