Total Injury

Earlier this week, an Atlantic City jury awarded a man and his wife a combined $47.5 million verdict in their personal injury lawsuit against drug behemoth Merck. Idaho postal worker Frederick Humeston suffered a heart attack after taking the pain-reliever Vioxx. He successfully showed that Merck knew of these potential side effects from this drug but did not warn prescribing doctors about these dangers. The jury also found that Merck acted recklessly and committed consumer fraud by misrepresenting and failing to disclose important safety information about the drug.

The jury specifically awarded Humeston $18 million in compensatory damages and his wife, Mary, $2 million for loss of consortium. An additional $27.5 million was awarded for punitive damages. Manhattan personal injury attorney Robert Gordon helped represent the Humeston family and said in a Business Wire story that the verdict shows how the public will not accept anything less than full disclosure from pharmaceutical companies. He added that he believes plaintiffs will successfully be able to show how using Vioxx significantly contributed to heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular injuries.

Merck still has to deal with 27,000 pending personal injury cases involving Vioxx. Personal injury attorney Jerry Kristal said that Merck’s decision to take on each of these cases head-on is financially irresponsible. Kristal estimated that even if plaintiffs are successful in only 30 percent of the pending cases, with verdicts in the $5-10 million range, Merck will have to shell out anywhere from $40.5 billion and $85 billion for compensatory and punitive damages as well as defense costs.

Follow the latest developments in the pending cases against Merck right here at the Vioxx News Blog and right here at The Injury Blog, of course!