Word: vioxx
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...drugs, Zocor and Fosamax, are going off patent over the next three years and that the pipeline looks thin. Now investors may have to stomach another bitter pill. A Texas jury last week awarded $253.5 million to the widow of a man who died after taking the painkiller Vioxx. In the first verdict reached in more than 4,000 liability cases involving the drug--which Merck recalled last year after studies indicated a possible link to heart failure--the award cast doubt on Merck's strategy of fighting each case individually rather than seeking to have them rolled...
...honest science. Merck, however, is hardly alone in being accused of such things. Wyeth, for one, has set aside $21 billion to pay for claims stemming from fen-phen, its faulty diet-drug combo. Analysts estimate that Merck could be on the hook for more than $18 billion in Vioxx damages...
Merck investors may take comfort in the fact that jackpot jury awards are often reduced on appeal. Texas law caps punitive damages, and the final award probably won't exceed $26.1 million. Merck not only plans to appeal in Texas but also has vowed to continue fighting each Vioxx claim individually. Ailing as it is, the firm is expected to generate $3.5 billion in cash this year. In other words, Merck isn't going bankrupt tomorrow. Which is just what the trial lawyers like to hear. --By Daren Fonda
...still unproven beyond the lab. Altorki and Keresztes had to halt my study when the Vioxx news broke. When they decided to resume, patients like me had to decide whether to continue and risk heart attack or stroke down the road. The doctors no longer require new subjects to enroll for a full two years, to track long-term survival--the heart danger seemed to kick in after about 18 months--but they are offering it as an option. Anyone who re-upped had to sign a revised waiver specifically advising them of the possible increased risk. On paper that...
Altorki's bigger fear is that the Vioxx scare will deter researchers from doing enough work on COX-2 to understand its true role in cancer. "If we do these studies and they show no evidence of efficacy, then I'm wrong. I'll get off that train and get on another," he says. "But it's important that we find...