Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Next for Merck: Consolidated cases in New Jersey

Judge Higbee is set to hear two cases in one next week: The plaintiffs are Thomas Cona and John McDarby, who each allege their use of Vioxx for more than 18 months contributed to their respective heart attacks.

One took the drug for 25 months, the other for four years. The VIGOR study with its 18 month key ingestion period will certainly play a larger role than in previous trials.