Judge Says Lawsuits Claiming Vioxx Caused Injury or Death Can't Be
Made Into Class-Action Suit
November 22, 2006                      13:15
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

NEW ORLEANS --  Thousands of federal lawsuits claiming the drug Vioxx
caused heart attacks and other conditions that killed or injured people
cannot be pooled into one national class action, a judge ruled
Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon, who was appointed to deal with
pretrial matters for all federal suits involving Merck & Co.'s
withdrawn painkiller, did not rule on the possibility of separate
class-actions suits for each state and the District of Columbia.

His 25-page ruling rejected the plaintiffs' proposal to try all of the
cases under the laws in New Jersey. They argued that the company should
reasonably expect to follow the laws of the state where it is
headquartered.

"While this is true, it is just as true that Merck, an international
corporation providing its drugs to every state in the nation, should
expect to abide by every jurisdiction's laws," Fallon wrote.

Since plaintiffs in other states couldn't reasonably expect their
personal injury claims to be governed by New Jersey law, it makes more
sense to apply the law of each plaintiff's home state to that
plaintiff's claims, Fallon ruled.

"Each plaintiff's home jurisdiction has a stronger interest in
deterring foreign corporations from personally injuring its citizens
and ensuring that its citizens are compensated than New Jersey does in
deterring its corporate citizens' wrongdoing," he wrote.

Fallon wrote he was "confident that common questions exist" in the
7,000-plus lawsuits _ something required for class actions.

But, he said, allegations that Merck failed to warn doctors adequately
about the drug's alleged health risk, "necessarily turn on numerous
individualized issues."

He wrote these issues include "the alleged injury; what Merck knew
about the risks of the alleged injury when the patient was prescribed
Vioxx; what Merck told physicians and consumers about those risks in
the Vioxx label and other media, what the plaintiffs' physicians knew
about the risks from other sources, and whether the plaintiffs'
physicians would still have prescribed Vioxx had stronger warnings been
given."

Merck has vowed to fight each Vioxx case individually. Its shares rose
30 cents to $44.52 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.