Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18475

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Publication type: news

Hagan K
Vioxx cases urgent: barrister
The Sydney Morning Herald 2010 July 22
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/vioxx-cases-urgent-barrister-20100721-10l9h.html

Full text:

THE Federal Court should expedite the cases of hundreds of Australians who had heart attacks after taking the anti-arthritis drug Vioxx so they do not die before receiving compensation, a barrister has argued.

Julian Burnside, QC, made the plea at a directions hearing in Melbourne yesterday after a judge this year found Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack and the Australian subsidiary of Merck, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, had breached the Trade Practices Act by selling it.

In his ruling in the landmark class action in March, Justice Christopher Jessup awarded $287,000 to lead claimant Graeme Peterson, 59, who had a heart attack in 2003 after taking Vioxx.

The ruling established a basis for claims from every Australian who had a heart attack after taking Vioxx between 1999 and 2004.

But lawyers for Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck’s Australian subsidiary, do not want their individual claims to proceed until the Federal Court has ruled on the company’s appeal. Such a ruling is likely to take more than a year.