Vioxx victim awarded over a quarter billion dollars

Carol Ernst, who became a widow in less than a year after getting married to Robert Ernst, has been awarded over $250 million in the first-ever Vioxx lawsuit that went to trial in the United States. Merck, the maker of now-recalled Vioxx, has vowed to appeal.

A brief background on Vioxx saga

Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra are drugs that belong to the so-called Cox-2 inhibitor drugs category and provide pain relief for arthritis patients. It was long known that these drugs increased the risk of heart attacks but drug companies like Merck and Pfizer continued to sell them aggressively while the FDA turned its face the other way. In any case, FDA was receiving millions in dollars in fees from drug companies it was supposed to manage.

After it was known that as many as 50-60,000 Americans were dead due to Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra, Merck recalled Vioxx in September of last year while the FDA forced Pfizer to recall Bextra in April this year. Celebrex, which was also expected to be recalled has received a black box warning.

Merck and Pfizer face tens of thousands of plaintiffs in trials that are expected to last at least for the rest of this decade and leading to liabilities that are expected to add up to tens of billions of dollars.

Ernst's attorney put together a compelling case and the evidence was overwhelming. In fact Merck had so many internal documents that implicated it that the plaintiff's attorney really did not have to work hard.

What does it mean?

A lot of Vioxx victims have been sitting on the sidelines and were waiting for the decision in this case. Plus many Vioxx attorneys were not handling any cases that were not rock solid. This is now likely to change as more cases are brought to trial.

Merck has vowed to fight each case individually and is likely to drag the litigation process to discourage more plaintiffs from coming forward.