By Evan George
Daily Journal Staff Writer
This article appears on Page 1
HEMET – Ramon Rodriguez was always good with his hands. The ex-Marine fixed cars, stitched leather and tinkered with home improvements, despite his diabetes and a failed kidney.
But that was before his skin began turning to stone.
It started as a stiffness in his legs and pain in his joints. Then, he began tripping. When his skin toughened, his doctors were puzzled.
Last year, Rodriguez, 65, was ...
The antibiotic Ketek, manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis, had been reported to cause liver failure, blurred vision and loss of consciousness in adults. Twelve adults in the United States suffered liver failure, and four of them died. Twenty-three others suffered serious liver injuries.1
The company undertook a study of Ketek in 24,000 patients to prove its safety. The trial was marred by fraud, one of the investigators on the study is now in federal prison, and another lost his medical license.1
Sanofi-Aventis first ...
continue reading...But assembling a jury for product liability trial in Katrina-ravaged city may prove difficult.
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
February 2, 2006: 1:42 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The next big battle over Vioxx takes place in New Orleans, a city mired in its own conflicts with nature, the government and itself.
The retrial of Merck v. Plunkett is scheduled to begin Monday in New Orleans — less than two months after a trial, presided over by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon ...
continue reading...Matthew Herper and Robert Langreth, 11.03.05, 1:42 PM ET
Merck won a significant decision in a Vioxx lawsuit, emerging victorious on all counts in the New Jersey case of a postal worker and Vietnam veteran who said that two months of Vioxx use caused his heart attack.
“This vindicates that we acted in the right way,” said Kenneth C. Frazer, Merck’s top lawyer, on a conference call with reporters.
“This is a critical victory for Merck,” says Howard Erichson, a professor of law ...
continue reading...November 3, 2005: 12:42 PM EST
By Aaron Smith, CNN/Money staff writer
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Merck & Co. was found not liable by a New Jersey jury Thursday in the second lawsuit over its former blockbuster painkiller and arthritis drug Vioxx.
The jury found that Merck did not fail to warn consumers about the safety of Vioxx, was not guilty of fraud, did not misrepresent the cardiovascular risks of Vioxx while marketing it to physicians, and did not conceal information about the ...
continue reading...By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
October 27, 2005, 4:48 PM EDT
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — When six women and three men retire to a jury room in the Atlantic County Civil Courthouse to begin deliberating in the second Vioxx product liability case, they’ll have plenty to consider.
After seven weeks, 21 witnesses, hundreds of documents and enough testimony to fill 5,764 pages of trial transcript, they face a daunting task _ deciding whether Vioxx caused a postal worker’s heart attack and whether drug ...
continue reading...
