Merck pays settlements in 3,468 Vioxx cases | NJ.com

Merck & Co. paid claims to the families of 3,468 users of its Vioxx painkiller who died of heart attacks or strokes, a court-appointed administrator told a judge today.

A $4.85 billion settlement fund made payments to the families of 2,878 Vioxx users who died of heart attacks and 590 who died of strokes, according to Lynn Greer of BrownGreer LLP, a law firm in Richmond, Virginia, that analyzed 59,365 claims.

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Merck set up the fund, which covers claims of death and lesser injuries, in 2007 after reserving $1.9 billion to fight 26,600 Vioxx suits. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans has overseen Vioxx lawsuits since February 2005 through a process known as multidistrict litigation.

“It’s a remarkable achievement,” Fallon said at a hearing, describing the MDL as the biggest in U.S. history. “We have really finished the large portion of this litigation.”

Merck won 11 of 16 Vioxx suits at trial before agreeing in 2007 to settle all claims. Merck didn’t admit that Vioxx caused injuries under an accord that set out how BrownGreer was to analyze each claim, weighing such factors as a user’s age, their length of use, and their health risks such as obesity or hypertension.

Of the 59,365 original claims, 1,343 were deemed ineligible, leaving 58,022 potentially eligible claims, said Orran Brown, chairman of BrownGreer. Almost 25,000 claims resulted in no payment, he said. He said today that 99.9 percent of claims were resolved under the settlement program.

via nj.com

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