The former top scientist at Merck & Co. Inc., in a videotaped deposition shown today, conceded that Merck in 2001 did not give federal regulators the entire text of an internal safety analysis of Vioxx and probably should have done so.
The statement of Edward Scolnick, now retired as chief of West Point, Pa.-based Merck Research Laboratories, came near the climax of the sixth trial against Merck - and its only second loss so far - over the blockbuster pain-reliever it recalled in 2004.
A New Jersey Superior Court jury already has found that Merck concealed key cardiovascular risk information from John McDarby, 77, of Park Ridge, N.J., who suffered a heart attack in 2004. It awarded him and his wife $4.5 million.
Now in the punitive phase of the trial, McDarby is trying to prove Merck "knowingly withheld or misrepresented" information about Vioxx from Food and Drug Administration regulators and should be punished for it. Jurors also will be asked to decide whether Merck acted with "willful and wanton" disregard for others.
No other pharmaceutical company has faced such a punitive trial in New Jersey, in which damages could go as high as five times the compensatory amount, or $22.5 million in this case, Merck lawyers said today in arguing again, unsuccessfully, for a mistrial.
More here at philly.com
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