New Jersey Court Revives a Merck Suit

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: January 18, 2007

A lawsuit against Merck that seeks medical monitoring for former users of the painkiller Vioxx was revived yesterday by a New Jersey appeals court.

Judge Carol E. Higbee of Superior Court in Atlantic City, who is overseeing about 15,000 personal-injury suits over Vioxx, dismissed the case in May 2005. But the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey ruled that her decision was premature.

The court instructed Judge Higbee to reconsider the claims’ validity, without endorsing them.

In the case, Phyllis Sinclair and Joseph Murray sued Merck on behalf of consumers who took Vioxx for at least six weeks before it was withdrawn in September 2004. The suit sought to have the company pay for a medical-screening program for class members.