Quoted from http://www.startribune.com/business/97182699.html
Drugmaker Merck says it will fight $8 million compensatory damages verdict in Fosamax trial
By LINDA A. JOHNSON , Associated Press
Last update: June 25, 2010 - 5:04 PM
TRENTON, N.J. - Drugmaker Merck & Co. said it will challenge its first loss in a trial blaming its osteoporosis drug for destroying a patient's jawbone after a federal jury on Friday awarded $8 million to the Florida woman.
The U.S. District Court jury in New York awarded that amount in compensatory damages to Shirley Boles, 72, of Fort Walton, Fla., who alleged Merck's Fosamax destroyed her jawbone near her ears, causing serious pain and disability.
"She feels vindicated, absolutely vindicated," said her attorney, Timothy O'Brien.
The three-week trial ended after nearly four hours of deliberations Friday by a jury of three men and four women. It was the second for Boles, a retired sheriff's deputy in the sex crimes unit in Oskaloosa County, Fla. Her first trial ended last September in a mistrial.
The jury concluded that Fosamax was "unreasonably dangerous due to defective design, and that its defective design was a legal cause of Mrs. Boles' injury."