A court in Rio Grande City, Texas, has awarded the family of Leonel Garza $7 million in compensatory damage and $25 million in punitive damages. Merck was sued by Leonel Garza's family, which alleged that Vioxx led to his fatal heart attack in 2001. Garza was 71 when he died.

Merck is facing over 11,000 lawsuits. There have been six so far, Merck has lost half of them. Even if one tenth of the eleven thousand suits remaining went the wrong way for Merck, the total payout would be huge. Imagine an average payout of $20 million, multiply that by 1,000 successful cases for the plaintiffs, and you have a tidy figure of $20,000,0000,000.

Vioxx was taken off the market because of significant cardiovascular risks for patients who took it for longer than 18 months.

As in the recent New Jersey case, Merck says it will appeal.

Each time a verdict awarding damages is published, Merck's share value drops a bit. When this news came out, Merck shares fell 26 cents to close at $34.74 in the New York Stock Exchange.

Perhaps Merck's strategy of taking each lawsuit individually may have been a mistake




View drug information on Vioxx.