Joe Escobedo, an attorney for the family of a Rio Grande City man, Leonel Garza, who died of a heart attack in 2001, told jurors in opening statements that Vioxx’s manufacturer, Merck & Co., simply kept the drug on the market to reap its profit.
Escobedo cited the company’s own studies and internal e-mails he said he plans to introduce as evidence.
"Merck cared more about whether Vioxx lived than whether the people on Vioxx lived," he said.
The company never studied how the drug would affect people like his client, who suffered from heart disease. Yet, an "army of sales reps" marketed Vioxx to cardiologists and the elderly. The jury doesn’t have to find that Vioxx alone caused Garza's heart attack, only that it was a contributing cause, Escobedo said.
But wait, Merck come out fighting:
"Garza’s severe heart disease caused his death, not Vioxx," said Richard Josephson, an attorney for Merck. He said Garza’s widow is "confused" and gave contradicting testimony about her late husband’s medicine.
Also the prescribing doctors' lawyer has a point:
"The major problem they have is he wasn’t taking Vioxx," said the doctors’ attorney, Robert Hole, in his opening statements to the jury. Hole said Garza’s widow changed her testimony after speaking with her attorneys and that the doctors were familiar with Merck’s risks.
So thats nice and clear.
Bring on the main attraction: Calling Dr Alise Reicin!
Source:Brittney Booth
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