November 12, 2007
Merck & Co. said last Friday it will pay $4.85 billion to end thousands of lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx in what is believed to be the largest drug settlement ever. Merck faced personal injury lawsuits representing 47,000 plaintiffs, and …
September 7, 2007
New Jersey’s Supreme Court has rejected a class-action lawsuit against Merck & Co. over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. The ruling is a huge legal victory for the drugmaker, which faces nearly 27,000 individual lawsuits from people claiming Vioxx harmed them. …
July 17, 2007
Merck & Co. is urging a New Jersey judge to slash a jury’s $47.5 million award to an Idaho postal worker who successfully sued the drugmaker over a heart attack he blamed on Merck’s since-withdrawn Vioxx painkiller. Frederick “Mike” Humeston, …
July 13, 2007
Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player’s wires. Last summer, …
July 2, 2007
A New Jersey judge handling hundreds of lawsuits over Wyeth’s hormone replacement drug Prempro has ruled that a federal law does not bar state lawsuits alleging drugmakers did not adequately warn about a product’s risks. The ruling, released last week …
March 21, 2007
Health insurers and union health plans nationwide should not be allowed to sue Merck & Co. jointly to recover money they paid for Vioxx prescriptions, a lawyer for the drug maker argued this week in opposing a lawsuit potentially worth …
March 15, 2007
Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx contributed to an Idaho postal worker’s heart attack, a jury in Atlantic City has ruled, reversing the verdict in the man’s first trial and hitting Merck with a total of $47.5 million in damages. In …
January 3, 2007
In light of food poisoning outbreaks involving spinach and lettuce, the government and the produce industry are scrambling to make leafy greens safer before the spring planting season. New guidelines from the industry are due in April on how to …
January 2, 2007
In light of food poisoning outbreaks involving spinach and lettuce, the government and the produce industry are scrambling to make leafy greens safer before the spring planting season. New guidelines from the industry are due in April on how to …
July 13, 2006
Severely clogged arteries, obesity and other factors caused a 68-year-old grandmother’s heart attack — not her use of Vioxx, lawyers for the drug’s maker told jurors in Atlantic City during closing arguments Tuesday in New Jersey’s latest case over the …