Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aGPA3PzDf1Rs
Merck Paying More Than 3,100 Vioxx Death Claims
By David Voreacos, Jef Feeley and Dawn McCarty
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co. is paying claims by the families of more than 3,100 users of its Vioxx painkiller who died of heart attacks or strokes blamed on the drug, according to a law firm administering a $4.85 billion settlement fund.
The fund will pay about 3,000 claims for heart attack deaths and at least 122 strokes, according to BrownGreer LLP, a claims administrator appointed by both sides. Merck introduced Vioxx in 1999 and withdrew it in 2004 when a study showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Merck set up the fund, which covers claims of death and lesser injuries, in 2007 after reserving $1.9 billion to fight 26,600 Vioxx suits.
“We don’t know any drug right now with this number of deaths associated with it,” said Houston attorney Mark Lanier, a Vioxx plaintiffs’ lawyer who is appealing the reversal of a $256 million verdict against Merck. “This is a very sad chapter in the American tragedy of pharmaceutical companies gone wild.”
Merck, which is set to buy rival Schering-Plough Corp. by the end of the year, won 11 of 16 Vioxx suits at trial before agreeing to settle all claims. Under the accord, the facts of each case determine the extent of Merck’s liability, which analysts once estimated to be as much as $20 billion overall. BrownGreer said it’s almost done reviewing 48,507 claims. So far, the firm has rejected 40 percent of them.