Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12630

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Publication type: news

Goldstein J.
What’s Buried In Merck’s Earnings
The Wall Street Journal 2008 Jan 30
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/30/whats-buried-in-mercks-earnings/?mod=yahoo_hs

Full text:

Merck reported its Q4 earnings this morning, featuring a quarterly loss driven by its $4.85 billion settlement of Vioxx litigation. The settlement, despite the cost, has been seen as a relatively good outcome for the drugmaker.

But the company release sheds new light on the recent brouhaha over the Vytorin Enhance trial, mentioning for the first time that there are “50 civil class action lawsuits alleging common law and state consumer fraud claims in connection with the sale and promotion of the joint-venture products Vytorin and Zetia.”

Sales of the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin (split between Merck and Schering-Plough) were up 34% compared with the year-earlier quarter to $1.5 billion.

And then there’s Fosamax, the company’s bone drug that’s about to go generic. The statement mentions that the company has set aside $48 million for legal defense costs in lawsuits over the drug. Many plaintiffs allege that Fosamax caused a condition called osteonecrosis of the jaw, or ONJ.

But the Fosamax litigation could hang heavy on the company. Whereas the connection in individual cases between Vioxx and heart attacks can be very difficult to prove, plaintiffs lawyers “say ONJ is what is known in legal circles as a signature injury, or a type of injury that is easier to link to a drug,” this morning’s WSJ reports.

An attorney representing Merck said “the overwhelming majority of surgeons would say that if there is ONJ induced by oral bisphosphonates, it happens extremely rarely.”

Bonus Blip: Q4 earnings for the vaccine Gardasil were $339 million, down from $418 million the previous quarter, notes Dow Jones Newswires’ Peter Loftus. That’s an odd blip for a growing franchise.