Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15360

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Rout M.
Class action against drug begins today
The Australian 2009 Mar 30
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25260867-23289,00.html

Full text:

THE long-awaited Australian class action against the manufacturers of the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx will begin today in the Federal Court.

More than 1000 people are expected to take part in the action, led by plaintiff Graeme Peterson, who claims he had a heart attack after using the drug.

The trial is tipped to take a critical look at the behaviour of pharmaceutical companies, the independence of drug trials and how drugs are marketed.

Manufactured by US company Merck, Vioxx came on to the market in 1999 and was used by millions globally because it was an anti-inflammatory drug that did not cause stomach problems after long-term usage.

But it was voluntarily recalled in the US in September 2004 and Australia followed in October after its long-term use was linked to cardiovascular conditions and strokes.

More than 40,000 lawsuits followed, with plaintiffs wanting compensation for heart attacks, strokes and even death, and the company settled its US personal injury claims over the drug for $5.2 billion in November 2007.

But Merck has been fighting the class action in Australia, being headed by Melbourne law firm Slater & Gordon, and after being lodged in 2005, it will finally get under way today.

In the statement of claim filed in the Federal Court against Merck and its Australian arm Merck Sharpe & Dome, Mr Peterson and other class-action group members allege they suffered heart attacks after taking the drug.