Vioxx News

The Vioxx body count
Back in 2004, when Merck took Vioxx off the market, I remember reading that investigators believed the drug may have been responsible for as many as 50,000 deaths from heart attacks and strokes. 50,000! That must be a typo, I remember thinking, because, while the number appeared in various accounts, nobody seemed too upset about it.
Merck Australia’s Win in Vioxx Ruling Is Upheld by Court
Merck & Co. (MRK) isn’t liable in Australia for heart risks associated with the Vioxx painkiller, the country’s top court ruled, upholding an appeal of the first trial decision outside the U.S.
Vioxx defeat costs law firm $10m
Law firm Slater & Gordon has been denied special leave in the High Court to restore a Federal Court ruling that the anti-arthritis drug Vioxx was not fit for sale.
Vioxx Killed Half a Million? The Facts Are Grim.
It’s looking more and more likely that the Merck painkiller Vioxx, the blockbuster drug suspected of having caused more than 55,000 deaths from stroke and heart attack before being withdrawn from the market in 2004, actually killed many more people than we previously thought. While conducting research on America’s media coverage of the Vioxx scandal, publisher of The American Conservative Ron ...
Court accepts Merck' $950M Vioxx settlement
Drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc. said Thursday a federal court accepted its $950 million payment to resolve an investigation into the marketing of its painkiller Vioxx.The court also accepted Merck's guilty ...
Vioxx Off-Label Marketing To Cost Merck $321 Million
Vioxx off-label marketing activities are going to cost Merck & Co. a whopping $321 million in criminal fines. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved Vioxx (rofecoxib), a painkiller, for three indications in May 1999. Merck has pleaded guilty … Continue reading →
Merck to pay $950M in Vioxx probe
A unit of Merck & Co., the second-largest U.S. drugmaker, pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge as part of a $950 million settlement of a U.S. government probe of its illegal marketing of the painkiller Vioxx. An official of Merck Sharp & Dohme said Thursday that the company agreed to plead guilty to one count of misbranding Vioxx. U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston accepted the ...
Slater & Gordon books $10m Vioxx writedown
Slater & Gordon shares fall after it says it will book a $10m non-cash writedown on its Vioxx class action.
Merck ordered to pay $321 million in criminal Vioxx probe
(Reuters) - A Boston federal judge on Thursday sentenced Merck & Co to pay a $321 million criminal fine for improperly marketing its Vioxx painkiller a decade ago. The U.S. drugmaker pleaded guilty in recent months to having illegally promoted Vioxx for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis before it was approved for that use in 2002. The pill, approved in 1999 as a painkiller, was withdrawn from ...
Slater & Gordon fail in Vioxx appeal
Law firm fails in bid for client to appeal decision on class action. 11 May 2012 1:20 PM