Breaking: Merck Agrees to Pay $4.85 Billion for Vioxx Claims

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Breaking: Merck Agrees to Pay $4.85 Billion for Vioxx Claims

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Merck Agrees to Pay $4.85 Billion for Vioxx Claims

Three years after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market, Merck
announced today that it will pay $4.85 billion to settle 27,000
lawsuits by people who contend they or their family members suffered
injury or died after taking the drug.

The settlement,
one of the largest ever in civil litigation, comes after nearly 20
Vioxx civil trials over the last two years from New Jersey to
California. After losing a $253 million verdict in the first case,
Merck has won most of the rest of the cases that reached juries, giving
plaintiffs little choice but to settle.

The settlement will help
put Vioxx behind Merck, as well as sharply reduce its Vioxx-related
legal defense fees, which are now running at more than $600 million
annually.

Judges in Louisiana, New Jersey and California, who
oversee nearly all the lawsuits, had pressed for a deal before a new
wave of trials was scheduled to begin in January.

Plaintiffs will
receive different settlement payments depending on the severity of
their injuries and the length of time they took Vioxx. The deal becomes
binding only if 85 percent of all plaintiffs agree to drop their cases
and take the deal.

Based on the fact that the 27,000 suits cover
about 47,000 sets of plaintiffs, the average plaintiff will receive
just more than $100,000 before legal fees and expenses, which usually
swallow 30 percent to 50 percent of payments to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs
who do not want to accept the settlement can pursue their own claims,
but with so many of the top trial lawyers in the United States agreeing
to the deal, they may have difficulty doing so.

After several
weeks of negotiations, Merck reached the settlement with lawyers who
are on the steering committee that represents attorneys for the
plaintiffs who have sued Merck in federal court. Those lawyers, and a
handful of others, represent most of the 47,000 different groups of
plaintiffs.

"I'm very happy with it," said Chris Seeger, one of the six plaintiff
lawyers who helped negotiate the settlement. "It's a tremendous way to
resolve this litigation."

Full article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/business/09cnd-merck.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin  

other articles:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071109/ap_on_bi_ge/vioxx_settlement

http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/09/news/companies/merck_vioxx/?postversion=2007110911

http://www.forbes.com/markets/economy/2007/11/09/merck-vioxx-settlement-markets-equity-cx_af_1109markets11.html