Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12957

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Publication type: news

Vioxx Settlement on Track as 44,000 Sign Up
Associated Press 2008 Mar 4
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/business/04vioxx.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=1675f4812ea9afab&ex=1362373200

Full text:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – More than 44,000 people have signed up for a piece of a $4.85 billion settlement over the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, a sign that the deal is on track to go forward, the drug’s maker, Merck & Company, announced Monday.

Of roughly 47,000 people who registered for the settlement this year, more than 44,000 have submitted all or some of the paperwork necessary for enrollment in the deal, Merck said.

People who enrolled by Friday could be eligible to receive an interim payment later this year.

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., has said it will withdraw from the agreement unless at least 85 percent of people in different groups of claimants join in the settlement.

Those thresholds would be met – and exceed 93 percent of eligible claims in each of four main categories – if all of the more than 44,000 submissions are verified, the company said.

A lead plaintiffs’ lawyer, Andy Birchfield, said Monday that the enrollment figures were “extremely encouraging.”

“These numbers reflect near universal acceptance of the program,” Mr. Birchfield said.

In addition to the 44,000, another 5,000 claimants whose eligibility is less certain have also submitted paperwork for enrollment, according to Merck.

“Counting and verification is still going on,” said a company spokesman, Kent Jarrell. “We really can’t estimate at this point when we’ll have more information.”

Lawyers for Merck and thousands of people who blamed Vioxx for their heart attacks or strokes announced the settlement in November 2007. The deal was expected to end an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 state and federal lawsuits.

Merck voluntarily took Vioxx off the market in 2004 after its own study showed the painkiller doubled the risk of heart attack when taken for at least 18 months. Vioxx accounted for $2.5 billion of Merck’s 2003 sales and an estimated 15 percent of the company’s profit that year.

Shares of Merck fell 24 cents Monday, to $44.06.