Attorney: Merck failed to warn customers of Vioxx dangers

an Associated Press report 08/22/05

JACKSONVILLE - Two months after a 41-year-old Orange Park man died from a heart attack suffered while playing basketball, his widow is suing Merck & Co. saying it is responsible by failing to disclose the dangers of its painkiller Vioxx.

Monday's lawsuit in Duval County Circuit Court by the widow of Hector Raices is one of about 20 Vioxx suits now filed by Jacksonville attorney Norwood "Woody" Wilner and comes on the heels of Friday's jury verdict in Texas that awarded $253.3 million to a woman whose husband died of a heart arrhythmia after taking the drug. Merck said it will appeal the Texas verdict.

About 4,100 national Vioxx-related lawsuits have been filed as of June 30, including an unknown number in Florida. Vioxx was recalled in September by Merck in response to concerns the medication could cause heart attacks and strokes.

Toni Marie Raices said her husband was visiting his son in Paterson, N.J., when he collapsed while playing basketball. He had been taking Vioxx for arthritis pain.

"My husband and I didn't know how dangerous this drug was," she said. "I still cry every night. I lost my best friend."

Guy Bizzoco, a spokesman for the New Jersey-based company, refused to comment on Raices's suit specifically or the Vioxx suits in general. In a statement after the Texas verdict, company general counsel Kenneth Frazier said future plaintiffs would face a challenge in proving Vioxx caused anyone's death or injury.

Wilner said his office is reviewing several hundred additional cases involving deaths and injuries, which may be attributed to Vioxx.

Wilner, who won a landmark $750,000 verdict against cigarette maker Brown & Williamson in 1996 in the case of former smoker Grady Carter, said the issues are similar to the case against Merck.

"Merck, like the tobacco companies, failed to listen to its own scientists. They failed to inform the public. They advertised the drug as if it was safe and it turned out it caused heart attacks and killed people," Wilner said at a news conference.

Wilner did not say how much money Toni Raices was seeking. The lawsuit seeks more than $15,000, the minimum required to file the case in Circuit Court.

"Merck ... will be called up to defend its actions and we are confident that they will be found to have violated the public trust here in Jacksonville, the way they were in Texas."