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Merck's good day
As noted earlier here, the occasional bad day that Merck experienced recently in regard to a couple of its Vioxx cases is inevitable when defending tens of thousands of such cases. However, it's also inevitable that Merck will experience some...
Merck's bad day
As with the baseball season, Merck & Co.'s defense of the Vioxx litigation is a marathon and not a sprint (previous posts here). Yesterday's sprint was not good for Merck, but my sense is that it's still way too early...
Carlene R. Lewis, R.I.P.
Well-known Houston plaintiff's attorney, Carlene Rhodes Lewis, died on Monday at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston from the effects of ovarian cancer. The Houston Chronicle obituary on Ms. Lewis' life is here. Ms. Lewis specialized in products liability cases, and...
Aspirin as Vioxx?
In one of my earlier posts about the Merck/Vioxx case, I observed somewhat facetiously that the risks associated with aspirin would probably deter any pharmaceutical company today from making the investment necessary to bring the drug to market. In this...
Keeping up with Merck's Vioxx cases
Well, it's only two down and about 6,500 to go, but last week's take nothing verdict in the latest Merck/Vioxx trial evened Merck's record in the Vioxx cases at 1-1 (earlier posts on Merck and Vioxx are here). Since that...
"You're a bully, Mr. Lanier, and you're not going to get away with it now"
That was one of the comments of Richard A. Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago and the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, during this heated exchange...
Contingent fees and tort reform
The jury verdict in the Merck/Vioxx trial generated a good bit of debate about tort reform, and one of the common topics in that discussion is the effect that contingent fees have on the civil justice system. Contracting for a...
Evaluating the true risk of Vioxx
At the start of the recent Merck/Vioxx trial, this post noted the dearth of clinical evidence that Vioxx was a particularly risky drug. In light of last week's big verdict in the case, long-time Clear Thinkers favorite James D. Hamilton...
Merck gets hammered
As anticipated by this prior post, a Brazoria County jury found that Merck & Co. was liable for $253 million in damages ($24 million in actual damages, plus $229 million in punitive damages) as a result of its negligence in...
Not looking good for Merck
In the ongoing wrongful death civil trial against Merck involving its pain reliever drug Vioxx, the mainstream media tends to focus on seemingly important expert testimony such as that described in this article. Being more a student of the courtroom,...
The first Vioxx trial
Jury selection begins today in Angleton, Texas in the first personal injury/wrongful death trial against Merck & Co. for alleged non-disclosure of the risks of taking the pain relieving drug Vioxx. Angleton is a small town in a plaintiff-friendly county...
Piling on Merck
Texas attorney general Greg Abbott announced yesterday that he has filed a lawsuit against Merck & Co. in state court alleging that the company bilked Texas out of about $170 million in Medicaid payments by misrepresenting the safety of its...
The Myth of Vioxx
Dr. Rangel analyzes in posts here and here the dilemma raised by Merck's decision to pull Vioxx from the market. Definite clear thinking. Check his thougts out....
Paying more for pain relief than necessary
Holman W. Jenkins' WSJ ($) Business World column this week explores how the miplaced incentives of America's health care finance system contributed to Merck over-marketing -- and doctors over-prescribing -- Vioxx despite its well known side-effects: [Vioxx was never supposed...
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