Ethics Newsline®

LOS ANGELES
Merck won another round in its continuing series of court battles over the now-withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx, with the victory underscoring the drug company’s strategy of refusing to enter into a blanket settlement with people who say they were sickened by the medicine.

A California jury last week rejected a man’s claim that the drug was responsible for his heart attack, the Agence France-Presse reported, accepting Merck’s argument that the attack was caused by a pre-existing condition.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a clinical study showed that the drug was linked to higher rates of heart attack and stroke in people who took it for longer than 18 months. Since then, Merck has won five cases involving Vioxx and lost three, Forbes reported, with a ninth case now in a New Orleans federal court.

According to the New York Times, Merck still faces about 14,000 suits that have been filed but not yet reached trial. Merck has adopted a strategy of contesting each claim, a move that apparently has discouraged some from filling suit.

CNN reported that the strategy appears to be working. “I think they’re doing the right thing, at least from a cost-benefit point of view,” Bryan Liang, professor of health law studies at California Western School of Law, told CNN. “Eventually they’re going to wear people down. If they continue to get more wins, I think that some plaintiffs are going to say ‘this is too much’ and they’re going to start dropping these cases.”

While some contend that the strategy will make it difficult or impossible for some with legitimate claims to collect damages, others defend the aggressive stance as the proper legal and ethical course of action.

“The plaintiffs are failing in the effort to extort money from Merck,” Michael Krensavage, a drug industry analyst at Raymond James, told the New York Times. “The plaintiffs are just trying to get a quick buck out of Merck, and I think they’ll go chase another ambulance once they figure out that Merck’s not paying.”