• Home
• Defective Drug Index
• About A Drug Recall
• Contact A Defective Drug Lawyer

We Can Help.

Researcher testifies Merck was aware of Vioxx safety risks

July 21, 2005

A researcher testified that Merck & Co. knew of safety risks the once popular painkiller Vioxx presented a year before the company even began selling the drug.

A Merck scientist, Nancy Santanello, said Edward Scolnick, the president of the company's research unit, raised safety concerns as early as 1998 that Vioxx might cause heart attacks and strokes. Vioxx was introduced to the U.S. market in May 1999, and the drug remained on the market for over five years until last September's recall.

Merck has maintained that it issued a voluntary recall as soon as it discovered safety concerns, but the lawyers cited e-mails and testimony from Santanello and Scolnick to argue the company downplayed serious risks to boost Vioxx sales. Vioxx generated $2.5 billion in sales last year, about 11 percent of Merck's total, even without being on the market for the entire year.

Last year, Merck set aside $675 million to fight Vioxx suits. Since the September 2004 Vioxx recall, the company's market value has declined by $32 billion.

Lawyers say the first Vioxx trial under way in Texas may last five weeks.

For more information on the Vioxx trial, please contact us to confer with a Vioxx Recall Lawyer and learn your legal rights and options.

 

More Recent Defective Drug News

• Reglan
• Raptiva
• Yaz Birth Control
• Nuvaring
• Duragesic Patch
• Heparin