A federal court jury voted unanimously today that Merck's Fosamax osteoporosis drug did not cause the dental and jaw injuries suffered by Louise Maley of Muncie, Indiana (here is herlawsuit). This was the second bellwether case over whether Merck failed to warn docs and patients that Fosamax may cause osteonecrosis, which is the painful death of jawbone tissue.
“Unfortunately, the plaintiff had multiple medical conditions that cause people to develop the jaw and dental problems she claims she has, regardless of whether they were taking Fosamax," says Merck lawyer Christy Jones of Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, in a statement. The drugmaker denies acting improperly.
Merck, which faces 978 such lawsuits in state and federal courts, won a dismissal of a previous case after a plaintiff couldn’t prove Fosamax caused her injury. That trial was set to begin in January (background). Last September, US District Judge John Keenan declared a mistrial in the first case to go to trial after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. That case is scheduled to go back to court on June 2.
4 Comments
Great reporting, Ed!
There is a "Six Degrees" story involving Merck's lead defense counsel, here -- but I'll leave that for another day.
Merck is far from out of the woods, here -- with over 1,000 cases still pending.
Namaste
Here we go again...with 3-4 of these cases won by Merck, the plaintiff lawyers can say goodbye to the majority of those 1,000 claims.
If the vioxx thing is any indication, Merck will fight them one by one.
By the way, did you notice that some of the same lawyers who went after Merck and Wyeth and Pfizer and others are the same ones who have lined up to sue Toyota and BP?
There are simply good and bad cases. A number of Baycol cases were lost. And a number were won. In the end, Bayer's own lawyers said that the jury got it right in those cases in which, from their perspective, causality could be shown clearly enough.
Re: Fosamax cases, I'd guess it's way too early to know.
Actually, Paul -- the facts here are a little more complicated than that "3-of-4" stat you've offered.
A mistrial -- Boles -- is NOT a "win". It is a "rain-out" or do-over. Especially so, since the mistrial resulted from alleged juror misconduct -- a "Runaway Jury" scenario. Boles will be RETRIED June 2, 2010.
Fleming was a directed verdict. A win -- but probably unique to the facts of Fleming, and the state law that governed her trial.
This one, tonight -- Maley -- is the very first jury verdict in Merck's favor, in the series of five bellweather trials.
Judge Keenan tossed Fleming from the five, when the directed verdict occured -- replacing it with Maley. That leaves four yet to go. Don't get too excited. Boles is next-up.
Namaste