Apr. 12 – Plaintiff lawyer tells jury to send message with Vioxx damages

An article on Marketwatch discusses how much Merck believes putting a warning label on Vioxx would cost their company in sales:

Another figure thrown out by Lanier was $229 million. That’s the amount of Vioxx sales that an internal Merck analysis once found the company would lose if it had to put a stricter heart-warning label on Vioxx earlier than expected. Vioxx sales were about $2.5 billion in 2003, the last full year the drug was on the market.

The $229 million figure also happens to be the amount that a Texas state jury awarded last year in punitive damages to the widow of a man who had a fatal heart attack after using Vioxx – the only other Vioxx case in which punitive damages were awarded. That amount is expected to be reduced under Texas law.

Merck’s Jones also told jurors that Merck’s profits from Vioxx sales in New Jersey were about $56 million. She said that’s a lot of money but jurors should “put it into perspective,” noting that jurors already had awarded about 8% of that to McDarby and his wife last week.

See the full article at: MarketWatch.com