Drug Lawsuits

A 5 woman, 7 man jury returned a verdict on the first Vioxx lawsuit Friday after deliberating for 10 1/2 hours over a two day period. The Texas jury found Merck liable for the death of Robert Ernst, who took Merck’s painkiller, Vioxx. This is the first of thousand of pending lawsuits throughout the United States.

The award was broken down by the jury as $229 million in punitive damages, $24 million for loss of companionship and mental anguish, and $450,000 for lost pay as a produce manager at Wal-Mart .

A 5 woman, 7 man returned a verdit Friday in the after deliberating for 10 1/2 hours over a two day period. The Texas jury found Merck liable for the death of Robert Ernst, who took Merck’s painkiller, Vioxx. This is the first of thousand of pending lawsuits throughout the United States.

The award was broken down by the jury as $229 million in punitive damages, $24 million for loss of companionship and mental anguish, and $450,000 for lost pay as a produce manager at Wal-Mart .

Lawyers from both sides of the first Vioxx civil trial in the country deposed Dr. Maria Araneta, the coroner that autopsied Robert Ernst, who died eight months after the start of taking Vioxx. He died as a result of an irregular heartbeat .

Dr. Araneta is a crucial witness to the question of whether the death of Robert Ernst was caused by Vioxx.

Mark Lanier, the plaintiff’s attorney, had planned to call Dr. Araneta to the stand as a surprise witness to testify that Ernst more than likely died of a heart attack, but that he died too quickly for his heart to show damage.

Merck’s lawyers asked State District Judge Ben Hardin to postpone testimony to question Dr. Araneta privately and away from the jury. Judge Hardin had yet to decide if Araneta’s testimony would be presented to the jury.

Dr. Maria Araneta was an assistant coroner in the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s office in May 2001 when Ernst died . She attributed his death to an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) or, secondary to clogged arteries.

The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit under the state’s Medicaid fraud act against Merck & Co. to recover money spent for participants of state Medicaid on Vioxx.

Pharmacies in Texas were reimbursed for about $56 million from May 1999 through September 2004 for Vioxx, when Merck stopped selling it due to increased reports of strokes and heart attacks, according to Attorney General Greg Abbott .

Attorney General Abbott requests recovery of $56 million , plus an additional award of two times that amount because of alleged misrepresentation and suppression of evidence by Merck .

Head of Merck’s department of epidemiology, Nancy Santanello, is in for a rough week. Mark Lanier, the plaintiff’s lawyer, has his eye on her as the first witness. He had tried to get her onto the witness stand last week after hours of opening statements from him and Merck lawyer David Kiernan, but proceedings ended too soon.

A 59 year old Cleburne, Texas Wal-Mart produce manager, Robert Ernst, is the focus of the trial. Ernst died in his sleep after taking Vioxx for 8 months to relieve pain in his hands, according to the plaintiffs. He was also a marathon runner and personal trainer.

A five women, seven men jury was seated on Wednesday for the first Vioxx trial in the nation in Angleton, Texas, near Houston.

Several people were not chosen due to ties to Vioxx, including two doctors and people who have taken Vioxx or who’s relatives have.

Statements began on Thursday and are expected to last at least five weeks.

The case is one of over 3,800 state and federal lawsuits pending against Merck & Co. over Vioxx.

Almost four months after U.S. officials seized the antidepressant drug Paxil CR from three GlaxoSmithKline facilities for failing to meet manufacturing standards, it is back on the market.

The FDA discovered that Paxil CR tablets could be split apart, possibly leaving portions without the control release or active ingredient.

The problems at their Knoxville, Tennessee and Puerto Rico facilities have been fixed, according to GlaxoSmithKline.

The first federal Vioxx lawsuits against drug company Merck could happen in the late fall of this year, according to a group of lawyers gathered in New Orleans.

As of June 15, there have been approximately 3,500 Vioxx Lawsuits filed against Merck in federal and state courts.

The first federal trials will be held in New Orleans due to U.S. District Court judge Eldon Fallon initially presiding over all the pretrail motions in the cases.

Eli Lilly & Co. has agreed to settle legal claims totalling almost $700 million. The claims are based on the fact that labels on its anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa had failed to provide adequate warning that the drug and could put patients more at risk of developing diabetes.

When final, the settlement, will resolve about 75 percent of the pending Zyprexa claims in the United States, according to a news release from Lilly .

Most of the lawsuits claimed that before September 2003, the information on Zyprexa labels regarding the risk of hyperglycemia and diabetes was not adequately displayed. Hyperglycemia is a condition in which the blood has elevated sugar levels, typical in diabetics.

The FDA is looking into about 40 reported cases of men going blind after using Viagra, CBS reported Friday.

A neuro ophthalmologist at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Howard Pomeranz, appears to be the first doctor to have made a connection in one of his patients in 1998. He said it made sense that Viagra, which alters blood flow in key parts of the body, could also affect circulation to the optic nerve.

Pfizer told CBS its Viagra studies show no reports of blindness and said there is no more evidence of vision loss in men taking Viagra than those who don’t. Pfizer is however in discussions with the FDA to update the labels to reflect the rare occurrences of blindness.