Another Merck Victory
A Tennessee man's product liability claim against Merck, maker of the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, was rejected today by a federal jury in New Orleans. This is the fourth victory for Merck in five federal trials.
After Texas attorney Mark Lanier's $253 million verdict in August last year, Merck stock fell with the expectation that more huge verdicts were in store. Now the pendulum has swung the other way and Vioxx plaintiffs' lawyers think the sky is falling. The real answer lies in the middle: Vioxx cases have value but most are going to lose on causation.
This New Orleans jury found that Merck did not have a duty to warn. But I think the weakness of Plaintiff's case may have turned the jury to the point where they saw everything through Merck's lens. I don't blame them. In closing, Plaintiff's lawyer admitted his client had other risk factors for his heart attack, including tobacco use, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and . . . drum roll please . . . cocaine use. What were the chances of this guy not having a heart attack?
Merck can sit back and enjoy another victory. But there is a reason why Merck is spending $1 million a day on legal expenses. There are still a lot of viable causation cases out there and Merck's handling of Vioxx can inflame jurors as we found out last year in Texas.
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