Merck Liable for Man's Heart Attack:
"ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A New Jersey jury found Merck & Co. concealed the dangers of its once-popular painkiller Vioxx in a split verdict that gave one of two plaintiffs in the trial $4.5 million in compensatory damages.
The trial was the first to address long-term use of the drug and some analysts said the Superior Court jury's decision Wednesday could prompt Merck to rethink its policy of battling each lawsuit individually.
Jurors said the company also had failed to warn doctors and the public about risks associated with the drug.
The jury, which spent a month hearing the cases of former Vioxx users John McDarby and Thomas Cona, returned a split verdict after two days of deliberations, finding that Vioxx caused McDarby's heart attack but not Cona's. Cona was awarded only the cost of his Vioxx prescription.
'This case was about the McDarbys and the Conas, but it was about more than that,' said Robert Gordon, one of McDarby's lawyers. 'It was about the 100,000 people in this nation who had heart attacks. It's about the tens of thousands doctors who were lied to by Merck about the dangers of Vioxx.'
The verdict sent Vioxx shares down 3 percent in late trading Wednesday evening."
Booyah!
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