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Vioxx verdict: Merck failed to warn docs BLOOMBERG NEWS A jury found Merck & Co. has to pay $50 million to a former FBI agent who blamed the painkiller Vioxx for his heart attack, the company's fourth loss in nine trials. A federal jury in New Orleans ruled today for Gerald Barnett, 62, who claimed Vioxx caused his 2002 heart attack. Merck lawyers said Barnett's history of heart disease explained the attack. Merck, the fourth-largest drugmaker, pulled Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes in some patients. The verdict may make it harder for Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, to fight every one of more than 16,000 lawsuits it still faces, as it said it plans to do. More suits may be filed in the coming weeks before a September deadline for such litigation expires. The company has set aside nothing for liability and about $1 billion for legal costs. This is Merck's first loss in federal court. The company has lost four trial verdicts in cases linking Vioxx to heart attacks, while winning five. In the first Vioxx case, a Texas jury a year ago awarded $253 million, which will be reduced to $26 million under state limits on damages. Today's verdict will be the largest so far in Vioxx litigation after the Texas award is cut. Jurors said they would consider punitive damages today against the company, which they found had not warned Barnett's doctors adequately about the dangers of Vioxx. They also found Vioxx had caused his heart attack. Merck shares fell 58 cents to $40.60 at 10:49 a.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock is up more than 25 percent this year. Barnett's Claims Lawyers for Barnett said the company ignored Vioxx's known risks as it marketed the profitable painkiller. The drug generated $2.5 billion in sales in 2004, about 11 percent of Merck's revenue. Barnett, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent for 27 years, experienced a decline in energy and activity levels since his heart attack, his lawyers said. His wife, Corinne, sought damages for the loss of his companionship. This is the third federal court trial over the drug. The first ended in a mistrial, and Merck won the retrial of the case. Before today's jury award, the Merck had lost three verdicts in state courts and was ordered to pay plaintiffs a total of $298 million, which will drop to $48 million because of state limits on punitive damages. Phil Beck of the Chicago law firm Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, who represented Merck, also was a lawyer for the company in the federal trial it won in February. Coming Trials Merck is scheduled this year to face four Vioxx trials in federal court in New Orleans, two in state court in Alabama, and one each in state courts in California, Illinois and Texas. U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, who presided over the Barnett trial, is overseeing 5,968 Vioxx cases. He will next hear a case that had been scheduled for trial in August by a tribal court of Mississippi's Choctaw tribe. The case is Barnett v. Merck, 06-485, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).
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