Lawyers push for Vioxx settlement

Clara Pirani
23aug05

AUSTRALIAN lawyers will pressure pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co to establish a fund to settle thousands of lawsuits surrounding top-selling arthritis drug Vioxx.

Richard Meeran, a consultant with Australian law firm Slater & Gordon, said a US court's decision to award $US253 million ($337 million) on Friday to a woman whose husband died of a heart attack was the sign of things to come.

"This is the first verdict and one would hope that Merck now recognises that it is going to have to compensate people and give urgent consideration to the establishment of a settlement scheme, rather than forcing them to take on protracted litigation," Mr Meeran said.

In Australia, 1500 Vioxx users have registered for a potential class action against Merck. The drug company also faces thousands of lawsuits worldwide after a study found people who took Vioxx had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Merck, which withdrew the drug from sale last September, said it would appeal against the decision. "The American jury system and Australian legal system are distinctly different. The case as it has been run in the US could not be conducted in Australia in the same way," it said.

However, lawyers in Australia said the US ruling could pressure the company to develop a fund to settle future cases.

About 250,000 Australians were taking Vioxx when it was withdrawn from sale.

Mr Meeran said the US result was promising but warned "no one in Australia can expect to receive even a fraction of that".

Peter Humphries, a partner at law firm Duncan Basheer Hannon, said about 1000 Vioxx users had approached them about the class action.

"Merck will resist it as much as they can, and if it does get to a point where they think there's an inevitable wave of successful claims coming at them, they might think what they can do to contain it," he said.

"But I think it's probably years away before the company decides."

Mr Humphries said a decision on how to proceed with the class action would probably be made by the end of the year. "We haven't yet decided whether we will issue in Australia or we whether we will join up with proceedings in the US."

Ian Lewington, 68, hopes the decision will be made sooner rather than later. He had used Vioxx for more than five years before suffering a heart attack last August.

"When I heard about the recall I was pretty angry," Mr Lewington said. "Suddenly a lot of things made sense.

"I had suffered deep-vein thrombosis in my right leg last year even though I hadn't been on a plane for 10 years. Then I had the heart attack even though I'd been in good health and hadn't had any heart problems."