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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2008

Today, an appeals court in Texas reversed the $26 million judgment in Ernst v. Merck, which made worldwide headlines in 2005 when the first Vioxx case to go to trial returned a $253 million...

In 2004, Merck withdrew its pain reliever Vioxx from the market because of new studies showing increased cardiovascular risk. Merck announced that it would not settle any of the tens of thousands of Vioxx lawsuits filed, and set aside over a billion dollars to litigate cases without reserving a penny...

What had been a trickle of litigation over Vioxx became a flood.

This installment looks at the problems presented by the Vioxx cases for the litigation system as a whole.

This paper looks at the history of Vioxx and asks questions about potential over-deterrence.

New research findings and a thorough reassessment of older research indicate that drugs like Vioxx can have many important benefits and great potential for addressing serious problems.

On August 19, 2005, a jury in Angleton, Texas, found Vioxx producer Merck liable for the death of fifty-nine-year-old Robert Ernst. The Brazoria county jury assessed a staggering $253 million ($24 million compensatory, $229 million punitive) in damages against Merck, although Texas law will cap the punitive damages at less...

An examination of Cox-2 class drugs for assessing Merck's decision to withdraw Vioxx.