Doherty's trial is the first involving a female Vioxx user, and she just might be the best plaintiff yet. Add this punch to the second punch - new data released from Merck as to the Approve Study. Merck has released - twice - data from the clinical study that led it to pull Vioxx.
Several doctors have said to media outlets that the new data may suggest that heart attack and stroke risks went up after just four months of Vioxx use and lasted for at least a year after patients stopped taking the popular arthritis pill.
From Reuters, Michael Galpern - Doherty's Attorney - was quoted as saying: "It debases Merck's stock defense that you needed to be on the drug 18 months before you had increased risk," he said, and the "high-school level statistical error" Merck just disclosed undercuts its credibility."
Galpern will certainly argue that senior citizens with risk factors are the very group that Merck targeted its ads.
