Consumer Advocacy Group Helping Hundreds of Puerto Ricans File Suits Against Vioxx

Wednesday August 31, 6:24 pm ET
By Alexandra Olson, Associated Press Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A consumer advocacy group said Wednesday it was helping hundreds of Puerto Ricans file lawsuits against the maker of withdrawn painkiller Vioxx before a September deadline.

Merck & Co. pulled the popular pain reliever from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, after a study found it doubled patients' risks of heart attacks and strokes after 18 months.

Under Puerto Rican law, consumers must file lawsuits within a year of learning a product is flawed, said Eric Quetglas, a lawyer working with Consejo de Latinos Unidos (Council of United Latinos).

About 500 Vioxx users in the U.S. Caribbean territory want to file claims against Merck, said K.B. Forbes, the group's executive director. About 150 of them said they suffered strokes or heart attacks, or had relatives who died after taking the drug, he said.

"We want to make sure that Puerto Ricans get a fair shake," Forbes said.

Quetglas said he would add the 500 new claims to a suit filed by a Puerto Rican family last year in a U.S. District Court on the island.

The drug's link to heart attacks and strokes has prompted thousands of lawsuits and a US$253 million (euro205 million) jury verdict in Texas last week.

Officials at New Jersey-based Merck did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

Consejo de Latinos Unidos presented a report in March saying Merck did not inform Puerto Ricans of the dangers of Vioxx in Spanish and urged pharmaceutical companies to publish health warnings in that language.

Merck had revised the pain killer's warning label and prescribing information for physicians in April 2002 to warn of possible side effects. But the new labels were published in English in Puerto Rico, even though Spanish is the most common language spoken on the island, the council said.

The council, a national nonprofit group with offices in Los Angeles and Miami, is helping the Puerto Rican consumers fill out an extensive questionnaire that a federal court in New Orleans has required of stroke or heart attack victims, Forbes said. The court is handling federal cases against Vioxx in the preliminary stages, said Quetglas.