Associated Press, "New England Journal: Merck Concealed Data"

          Vioxx maker Merck & Co. concealed heart attacks suffered by three patients during a clinical study of the now-withdrawn painkiller in a report on the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000, the journal wrote in an editorial released Thursday.
          The editorial, written by the journal's editor in chief, Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, executive editor Dr. Gregory D. Curfman and a third doctor, also alleges the study's authors deleted other relevant data before submitting their article for publication.
          "Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article," the doctors wrote. More...

Associated Press, "Cardiologist Criticizes Merck Behavior"

          A prominent cardiologist testifying against Merck & Co. accused the drugmaker Saturday of engaging in scientific misconduct, suppressing clinical evidence and stifling medical discourse as it promoted the painkiller
          Dr. Eric Topol, chairman of the cardiovascular medicine department of the Cleveland Clinic, called certain aspects of Merck's behavior "repulsive" and "appalling" during his three-hour videotaped deposition. More...

New Jersey Law Journal, "Over Merck Objections, N.J. Judge Combines Vioxx Cases for Trials"

          The judge presiding over 3,500 Vioxx cases in New Jersey has set Feb. 27 as the next trial date, this time for a consolidated trial of two plaintiffs' claims, despite drug maker Merck & Co.'s urging that each case be decided on its own facts.
          One plaintiff, John McDarby, 76, of Park Ridge, N.J., took Vioxx for arthritis pain from March 2000 until his heart attack in April 2004. The other, Thomas Cona, 59, of Cherry Hill, N.J., took Vioxx from August 2001 until his heart attack in June 2003.
          Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee in Atlantic County also scheduled three cases for trial on April 24 and two for June 12. Higbee grouped the cases based on the alleged damage as well as the specific years and length of time the plaintiffs took the prescription painkiller.

San Francisco Chronicle, "Doctor: Vioxx Was Factor in Man's Death"

          A pathologist testifying at the first federal trial over Merck & Co.'s former blockbuster drug Vioxx said he believed the pain killer helped cause a blood clot that killed a Florida man.
          "It is my opinion that it contributed to his death," Dr. Colin M. Bloor told jurors Wednesday on the second day of the trial that centers on whether Vioxx caused Richard "Dicky" Irvin's fatal heart attack in May 2001. The 53-year old manager of a seafood distributor had been taking Vioxx for about a month to alleviate back pain when his colleagues found him dead at his desk. More...

Associated Press, "Lawyer Tells 3rd Vioxx Trial That a Month's Use Was Fatal"

          A lawyer representing a widow who contends that her husband's death was caused by Vioxx, the arthritis pain reliever made by Merck, argued Tuesday in a federal product liability suit here that taking the medicine for a month was enough to cause the heart attack that killed her husband.
          But Merck countered in opening statements that extensive studies made before the drug was introduced in 1999 showed no evidence that its short-term use caused heart attacks, and that heart disease, not Vioxx, led to the man's death. More...
          The trial is the third so far over Vioxx's safety. Merck lost a state trial in South Texas in August, but won a case in a New Jersey state court early this month. More than 7,000 state and federal lawsuits have been filed over Vioxx.

Associated Press, "Vioxx Users to Challenge Safety Claims"

          Whether the once-popular painkiller Vioxx can be lethal if taken for just a few weeks will be the crux of the first federal trial concerning the drug's safety, plaintiff's lawyers said Wednesday.
          Lawyers representing the widow of a man who had a fatal heart attack a month after taking Vioxx, said they intend to skewer Vioxx-maker Merck & Co.'s contention that the drug can't cause heart hazards unless taken for 1 1/2 years or more. "The 18-month myth is something Merck has manufactured to avoid liability" said Alabama attorney Andy Birchfield. More...

Associated Press, "Two state trials down, first federal trial next up for Merck"

          With Merck now 1-and-1 in state lawsuits over its Vioxx painkiller, the world's No. 5 drug maker may face higher stakes later this month in the first federal trial of charges that it knowingly rushed a potentially lethal drug to market to pocket billions in profits. More...

Associated Press, "Jury Finds for Merck in Second Vioxx Case"

          Merck won a victory in the battle over its Vioxx painkiller when a New Jersey state jury found that the drugmaker properly warned consumers about the risks of the medication. The finding means Merck won't be held liable for the 2001 heart attack suffered by a man taking Vioxx. More...

Associated Press, "Merck Hit by Flood of Vioxx Lawsuits"

          Eight weeks after a Texas jury handed drug maker Merck & Co. a $253 million verdict in its first Vioxx product liability trial, the number of Vioxx lawsuits is rising like floodwater.
          More than 1,000 new Vioxx cases have been filed in New Jersey alone since late August, including 800 in September, and more than 500 new cases are pending in federal court. More...

Associated Press, "Key Merck Witness Struck From Vioxx Trial"

          With the jury out of the courtroom, Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee said she felt misled and sickened upon rereading the transcript of Thursday's testimony by a Merck researcher who said studies in the late 1990s showed the pain reliever would not cause heart damage. Judge Higbee struck the testimony of Merck researcher Dr. Briggs Morrison from the record because she said he was not an expert on the studies he had told the jury about Thursday, nor did Merck give the court sufficient notice about what he would discuss. Morrison was Merck's opening witness in the three-week trial over whether Vioxx caused the 2001 heart attack of Idaho postal worker Frederick "Mike" Humeston.

AFX News Limited, "First Germans join US lawsuit against Merck over Vioxx"

          Four German patients have joined a US class action lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co over its controversial arthritis painkiller Vioxx, according to a report published in Berlin. Germany's Bild am Sonntag said the first German patients would add their names to the suit against Merck on Monday in Chicago, accusing the company of continuing to sell Vioxx even after grave concerns about the drug arose.
          "Thousands of victims could have been avoided if Merck had acted responsibly," Berlin attorney Andreas Schulz told the newspaper. The drug was taken by more than 20 million people worldwide before its withdrawal.

San Francisco Chronicle, "Vioxx Judge Reprimands Merck Lawyer"

          The judge hearing a product liability Vioxx suit against Merck & Co., the manufacturer of painkiller Vioxx, reprimanded the drug maker's lead lawyer Thursday for violating pretrial instructions barring comments about lawyers in front of the jury. Read more...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Second Vioxx Trial Underway Against Merck "

          A lawyer for a man who blames Vioxx for his heart attack told jurors Wednesday that the man had an active lifestyle but was stricken within two months of beginning to take the painkiller.
          During opening statements in a product liability case against Vioxx maker Merck & Co., attorney Chris Seeger said client Frederick "Mike" Humeston resorted to the drug to address persistent pain from a Vietnam War shrapnel wound. Read more...

New Jersey Law Journal, "Class Action Could Mean Billion-Dollar Exposure for Merck"

          After Merck & Co.'s devastating loss in Texas several weeks ago in the first Vioxx case to go to a jury, the nation's eyes now turn to Atlantic City, where New Jersey's first case is set for trial on Sept. 12.
          There are about 5,000 personal injury suits filed nationwide, about half in New Jersey, over the Merck painkiller that has been linked to increased risk of heart attack or stroke, but lurking behind those thousands of cases is a single one that could pose the greatest danger to America's third-largest drug company. Read more...

The Associated Press, "Vioxx Case Tally Nearly 5,000 and Growing, Lawyers Say"

          The tally of lawsuits against Merck & Co. in state and federal court over its painkiller Vioxx is nearly 5,000 and growing, lawyers said in federal court Thursday, less than a week after the drug maker suffered a stinging defeat in a state court in Texas.
          The implications of the loss in the first of the case to be tried against Merck are still playing out. But at a routine monthly meeting in New Orleans lawyers -- and U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon -- made it clear they expect the number of cases against Merck will grow. Read more...

The New York Times, "Maker of Vioxx Reports Progress of Suits"

          With the number of Vioxx-related lawsuits soaring, the drug maker Merck may consider offering settlements to plaintiffs in a few cases, the company's general counsel suggested yesterday.
          Merck had previously said that it planned to defend every personal-injury lawsuit filed over Vioxx, a painkiller and arthritis medicine that has been shown to raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Read more....

International Herald Tribune, "For Merck, Global Legal Woes"

          Patients worldwide who suffered heart attacks or strokes while taking the painkiller Vioxx are preparing to sue its maker, Merck, exponentially increasing the company's potential liability. Read more...

The Associated Press, "Documents: Merck Tried Reducing Vioxx Risk"

          Merck & Co. sought patent protection for a way to reduce cardiovascular problems in Cox-2 inhibitors, the class of drugs that includes Vioxx, as early as 1998 -- a year before the popular pain killer was introduced, newly disclosed documents show.
          The application suggests that Merck was attempting to reformulate the drugs targeted for arthritis sufferers two years earlier than had been previously disclosed. But while the patent was granted in September 1999 by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Merck officials say no product with those properties was ever introduced. Read more...

The New York Times, "For Merck, Vioxx Paper Trail Won't Go Away"

          On Friday, a Texas jury found Merck liable for the death of Robert C. Ernst, who died in May 2001 after taking Vioxx, a painkiller made by the company. After two days of deliberations, the jury said that Carol Ernst, Mr. Ernst's widow, should be awarded $253.5 million.
          In interviews after the six-week trial, jurors said they had concluded from the testimony and documents presented by Mrs. Ernst's lawyers that Merck was long aware of Vioxx's potential heart risks but hid those risks from patients. To the jurors, the evidence added up to a mass of damaging bad facts that overwhelmed the company's defense.
          Plaintiff's counsel offered jurors a trove of company documents and e-mail messages that revealed how Merck researched Vioxx's heart risks and presented what it knew to doctors and consumers. The documents showed that scientists at Merck were worried about Vioxx's potential cardiovascular risks as early as 1997, two years before Merck began selling the drug.

The New York Times, "Jury Finds Merck Liable in Vioxx Death and Awards $253 Million"

          In the first verdict of a Vioxx-related personal-injury lawsuit, a Texas jury found the drug's maker, Merck, liable and awarded $253.5 million to the widow of Robert Ernst, who died in 2001 after taking the painkiller and arthritis medicine. Read more...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Jury to Begin Deliberating in Vioxx Trial"

          Deliberations await jurors who have heard more than a month of often complex testimony about Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx and whether it led to the 2001 death of a Texas man. Read more...

Los Angeles Times, "Pathologist Deals Blow to Merck in Vioxx Lawsuit"

          Jurors in the Vioxx trial heard testimony Monday from a pathologist who said the death of a man taking the drug was more than likely caused by a heart attack - damaging Merck & Co.'s defense in the first Vioxx liability case to reach trial. Read more...

New York Times, "Judge Denies Merck Request at Vioxx Trial"

          A state court judge ruled Thursday night that the coroner who conducted the autopsy of Robert Ernst, who died after taking the painkiller Vioxx, can testify in the lawsuit that Mr. Ernst's widow has brought against Merck, the maker of the drug. Read more...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Texas Coroner Deposed in Vioxx Trial"

          Lawyers on both sides of the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial on Tuesday deposed the coroner who autopsied a man who died of an irregular heartbeat eight months after beginning a regimen of Vioxx.
          Dr. Maria Araneta is a crucial witness to the question of whether the once-popular painkiller caused Robert Ernst's death. Read more...

New York Times, "Cardiologist Testifies Vioxx Contributed to Man's Death"

          The painkiller Vioxx probably led to the death of Robert Ernst, a cardiologist told jurors on Monday in the first Vioxx lawsuit to reach trial.
          "I think to a reasonable medical probability Vioxx was a significant contributing factor in causing this event," said Dr. Isaac Wiener, an expert witness called by the plaintiffs in the case. Read more...

Associated Press, "Merck failed to test safety of Vioxx on heart; No studies conducted before drug went on market, company official says"

          Merck & Co. didn't do any significant studies on whether Vioxx could cause heart attacks or other serious cardiovascular problems before the popular painkiller went on the market in 1999, the company's top epidemiologist testified Wednesday. Read more...

Associated Press, "Did Merck target doctors critical of Vioxx? Plaintiff's lawyer alleges company circulated list of 'physicians to neutralize'"

          Merck & Co.'s marketing team targeted doctors viewed as unfriendly toward Vioxx to bring them into the fold, neutralize or discredit them, the plaintiff's lawyer in the nation's first Vioxx-related lawsuit to go to trial alleged Tuesday. Read more...

New York Times, "At Vioxx Trial, a Discrepancy Appears to Undercut Merck's Defense"

          In a 2001 letter to doctors, Merck seriously understated the heart risks faced by patients taking its painkiller Vioxx, according to evidence presented Tuesday in the first Vioxx lawsuit to reach trial. In the letter, Merck reported that patients taking Vioxx in the largest clinical trial of the drug ever, only 0.5 percent had incurred "cardiovascular events," or heart and circulation problems. That would mean only about 20 patients among the more than 4,000 who took Vioxx during the study. Read more...

Associated Press, "Testimony Begins in Vioxx Case; Merck scientist takes the stand -- plaintiffs' lawyers say the firm downplayed safety concerns"

          Merck & Co.'s top epidemiologist took some verbal punches Monday as the plaintiffs' lawyer in the nation's first Vioxx-related lawsuit to go to trial said the company downplayed concerns about the drug's safety for years before taking it off the market in 2004. Read more...

CNN, "A lot at stake for Merck in Vioxx suits;
First trial set to start in Texas; analyst says liabilities could hit $25 billion for drugmaker."

          The first Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. begins Monday in a Texas state courtroom and the implications could be huge for the embattled drugmaker. Read more...

Associated Press, "Jury Selection Begins in First Vioxx Trial"

          About 120 potential jurors filled out questionnaires Monday as jury selection began in the nation's first Vioxx-related lawsuit to go to trial. Read more...

Associated Press, "Judge Denies Request for Delay in Vioxx Trial"

          A judge on Tuesday declined to postpone the first wrongful-death trial related to the painkiller Vioxx but said he would check questionnaires filled out by potential jurors for evidence that they were biased by pretrial publicity. Read more...

Associated Press, "Merck to Seek Delay in First Vioxx Case"

          Merck & Co. wants to delay the first wrongful death trial over its pain reliever Vioxx, arguing that it cannot receive a fair trial if the Texas case begins next week as scheduled.
          The company wants the trial postponed for at least 60 days, citing recent publicity about the drug. Merck withdrew the drug in September when research showed that patients who took it for 18 months or longer more than doubled their risk for heart attack and stroke. Since then, more than 2,400 Vioxx lawsuits have been filed nationwide.
          A hearing on Merck's motion was slated for Tuesday in Wharton, Texas. Mark Lanier, a Houston attorney for a woman suing New Jersey-based Merck over her husband's 2001 death, said he will oppose a delay.
          In the motion, which was filed Friday, Merck said a lawsuit brought Thursday by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott seeking $250 million in damages for Vioxx purchases has "effectively eliminated any possibility Merck can receive a fair trial beginning July 11."

Associated Press, "Merck tried to alter Vioxx in 2000; Drug maker wanted to reduce heart risks, internal document shows"

          Merck & Co. researchers privately sought to reformulate Vioxx in 2000 to reduce its cardiovascular side effects, even as the drug maker was publicly playing down a study that highlighted the pain reliever's potential heart attack risk, an internal company document shows. Read more...

Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN), "Judge says Merck Vioxx cases could hit 100,000"

          A federal judge told dozens of lawyers crowded into a New Orleans courtroom Monday that there could ultimately be up to 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 Court Judge Eldon Fallon, and lawyers from both sides met here for a monthly status conference. Analysts have estimated Merck's potential liability could reach $18 billion. Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market last September after a study showed it doubled patients' risk of heart attacks and stroke in people taking the drug longer than 18 months.

Associated Press, "Panel backs bill permitting more Vioxx lawsuits"

          More Vioxx users who were allegedly injured by the drug will be able to sue the manufacturer under a bill passed by a Senate panel on Monday. Read more...

The Boston Globe, "Merck told sellers to avoid talk of Vioxx heart risks; Lawmakers blast drug makers tactics"

          Merck & Co. trained an army of employees visiting doctors' offices to avoid discussing negative studies about Vioxx despite mounting evidence that the arthritis painkiller caused heart attacks and strokes, according to company documents released yesterday at a congressional hearing. Read more...

Associated Press, "Vioxx aggressively marketed despite concerns; Merck used code-named projects to boost sales, report finds"

          Merck & Co. sales personnel, using projects code-named "Offense" and "XXceleration," took extensive measures to boost sales of the painkiller Vioxx amid brewing safety concerns. Read more...

The New York Times, "Vioxx Trials May Clear Up Merck Picture"

          The financial future of Merck & Co. should start to become clearer in the coming weeks as the first of what promises to be hundreds of trials begins over claims that the drug maker's Vioxx pain medication contributed to patient' death or disability. Read more...

The New York Times, "Lawyers Set To Bring More Suits"

          The government's decision to force Pfizer to withdraw the pain drug Bextra and add warnings to the label of a similar drug, Celebrex, has galvanized the informal network of lawyers pursuing death and injury suits aimed at the two drugs and their chemical relative, Vioxx. Read more...

The New York Times, "10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties"

          Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.
         If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8 that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1 for Vioxx's return. Read more...

Associated Press, "Panel Backs Keeping Pain Drugs on Market"

          The popular painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx all pose a risk of heart trouble, but should be available to those who need them, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The panel strongly favored keeping Celebrex on the market, split over Bextra and favored Vioxx - which is currently not on sale - by a vote of just 17-15.
          The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of the panel. At the opening of the three-day meeting, FDA officials promised a prompt response to the panel's suggestions, which it requested after studies began showing problems with the drugs. The panelists were unanimous in saying the drugs, known as Cox-2 inhibitors, pose risks of heart trouble. Studies of Bextra were limited, but showed a greater risk than Celebrex, the committee noted.
          The advisers suggested restrictions on the drugs such as placing a severe "black box" warning on them, including more patient information with the drugs, restricting which patients could get the drugs and possibly banning direct-to-consumer advertising for the products. The committees were asked to assess the drugs after Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx from the market last fall because of health concerns. Since then questions have been raised about Bextra and Celebrex, both made by Pfizer Inc.

Associated Press, "Whistleblower Warns of More Vioxx Risks"

           Use of the painkiller Vioxx poses the risk of hundreds to thousands of additional heart attacks in older men, a Food and Drug Administration whistleblower told a panel reviewing the safety of painkillers. Dr. David Graham said studies indicate a range of increased heart attack risk which translates to as few as 400 or as many as 10,800 additional heart attacks in men aged 65 to 74 at low doses of the drug.
           While some studies of Vioxx showed a statistical increase in risk, Graham commented that "patients enrolled in clinical trials are generally healthier than patients in the real world, so models underestimate the actual population impact."

Reuters, "U.S. may pull painkillers, researchers say; New studies reveal additional risksof COX-2 inhibitors"

          Doctors who led three studies showing prescription painkillers called COX-2 inhibitors raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke said Tuesday the whole class of drugs was in danger of being pulled from the market.
          One day before a Food and Drug Administration panel begins discussing the future of such drugs, the New England Journal of Medicine published details of three studies stopped early because patients taking the drugs were having more heart attacks, strokes and other adverse events than patients not taking them.
          "I think we are at risk of losing the class of drugs," said Dr. Robert Bresalier of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who was studying one of the drugs, Vioxx, known generically as rofecoxib, in a colon cancer trial.
          Merck & Co. Inc. withdrew Vioxx in September after learning the results of Bresalier’s trial, which showed Vioxx almost doubled the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other major adverse events.

The New York Times, "Merck's Actions on Vioxx Face New Scrutiny"

          The spotlight is likely to be on Pfizer tomorrow when federal drug regulators begin hearings on cox-2 drugs, the class of arthritis and pain medicines that include the company's Celebrex and Bextra brands. After all, Merck, which made the other drug in that class, Vioxx, pulled it off the market last fall, citing its safety risks. Read more...

Associated Press, "Merck in hot seat over latest Vioxx report; Scientists say company tried to distance itself from own study"

          Merck & Co. forced one of its researchers to remove her name from a study linking Vioxx to heart attacks, then criticized the findings before ultimately pulling the arthritis drug from the market last fall, two of the scientist’s colleagues said. Read more...

San Francisco Chronicle, "Studies confirm arthritis drugs raise heart attack risk"

          Two studies released Monday have turned up new evidence that all of the popular arthritis painkillers known as COX-2 inhibitors may put users at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. COX-2 inhibitors, which are promoted as being less likely to cause gastrointestinal bleeding than other widely used painkillers, were aggressively advertised after they came on the market in the late 1990s. Read more...

Red Nova News, "Studies Evaluate Effects of COX Enzymes"

          Two University of Pennsylvania studies published Monday show how cyclooxygenases or COX enzymes affect patients' risk of cardiovascular events.
          COX-2 drugs -- Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx -- have been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
          An analysis of two clinical trials that alerted scientists to problems with Bextra last November found the Pfizer medication elevated the risk of heart attack and stroke three-fold in coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients.
          The research is published in the journal Circulation.

Reuters, "Researcher says 139,000 harmed by Vioxx"

          The U.S. drug safety officer who warned months ago about risks from Merck & Co. Inc.'s painkiller Vioxx won clearance to publish a study arguing the now-recalled drug may have caused up to 139,000 heart attacks and strokes, his attorney said Monday. Read more...