Vioxx: Merck is not Required to Refund the State of Louisiana

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From Bloomberg:

Managers of Louisiana’s state-sponsored health programs had no power under state law to halt reimbursements for Vioxx prescriptions, even had they known that Merck misled them about the drug’s heart-attack risk, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans ruled .  This is the first of about a dozen state litigation matters on the same issue to go to trial.

Lousiana “did not carry its burden that, had the state possessed different clinical information about Vioxx, it would have sought to restrict Vioxx Medicaid reimbursements entirely,” wrote Fallon.

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