Merck ordered to take Vioxx release off Web

BY DAVID VOREACOS
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Saturday, January 20, 2007

Merck & Co. was ordered by a New Jersey judge to remove from its Web site a press release about a trial next week over whether its Vioxx painkiller caused heart attacks in two men.

Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee told Merck to take down a release discussing both lawsuits, including one on the 2002 death of Brian Hermans, 44. The release blamed his heart attack on clogged arteries and other risks, saying he had methadone in his system when he died. Methadone, a synthetic narcotic and painkiller, is used to treat addiction to heroin and OxyContin.

"To suggest that this man used illegal drugs is an outrageous smear," Mark Lanier, a lawyer for Hermans's sister, said. "There are a group of people in this world who think that methadone isn't used for anything but overcoming heroin addiction. They don't know it's also used for pain relief."

Merck, the fourth-largest U.S. drugmaker, withdrew Vioxx in 2004 when a study showed it raised the risk of heart attacks.

The Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based company, which faces 27,000 Vioxx suits, has won eight of 12 cases tried so far. A ninth victory, over plaintiff Frederick Humeston, was overturned. His suit will be retried with the Hermans case.

Merck attorney Ted Mayer said Higbee ordered the press release removed because she hadn't ruled yet on Lanier's motion to exclude evidence about methadone from the trial. He said the release wasn't a smear of Hermans and only sought to lay out facts of the case, as Merck has done before other trials.

Autopsy Facts

"These are facts from the autopsy in the case," said Mayer, of Hughes Hubbard & Reed. "The press release was simply a matter of making available basic facts in the case."

Lanier said there is no evidence that Hermans took illegal drugs, and a false-positive test may have indicated methadone was in his system. Higbee ruled that evidence about methadone won't be allowed "at this point," Lanier said.

The first phase of the trial will be on whether Merck failed to warn doctors about the risks of the drug and whether it violated New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act in its marketing. If jurors rule against Merck, a second phase will examine whether Vioxx caused the heart attacks of Hermans and Humeston.

Hermans died after taking Vioxx for 19 months for knee pain. The autopsy showed that Hermans, a former Wisconsin state racquetball champ, suffered a heart attack and had an arrhythmia and a clot in his heart, Lanier said.

Enlarged Heart

Merck's release said he had an enlarged heart and diseased coronary arteries, as well as a family history of heart disease and early death. It said he died from arrhythmia and had methadone and fluoxetine in his system. Fluoxetine is another name for Prozac, an antidepressant.

Methadone is used by about 20 percent of the 810,000 heroin addicts in the U.S., according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"The general perception in the public is that methadone is primarily used to treat heroin addicts," said Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director for demand reduction at the office. It also is "a very effective painkiller," she said.

Shares of Merck fell 14 cents to $45.60 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have climbed 37 percent in the past year.