Now that the 18 month defense has collapsed, Merck's fallback is to attack the victem on causation, while touting, exceeding FDA reporting requirements.
I have four vioxx cases. Two in New Jersey and two in the Southern District of Indiana.
As a pharmacist (43)years, attorney:
It needs to be demonstrated Merck was the customer of the FDA, rather than the victems. It is not sufficient that Congress is addressing that issue, due to the back door Merck PR campaigns to influence jurors.
Causation must be shown by experts who do not appear over the top. Merck's expert from St. Louis Univ. was preposterous but, the jury focussed on the credibility of the plaintiff experts. They both exaggerated and didn't help the plaintiff. The family Dr. was the most credible. Plaintiff's should be mindfull that treating Dr's often carry much more weight with a jury, than hired guns and Monday records reviews.
Showing the depositions of Dr. Topol and David Graham would have been more persuasive with the jury's, especially since they were not paid.
Perhaps it will take showing the collusion between the FDA and Merck and some analogy between the number of heart attacks, strokes and deaths and the war on terror to bring it home. This country has been divided by the war in Iraq and it's 3000 deaths; whereas we haven't heard a mouse fart about a possible 60,000 Vioxx deaths.
I wonder how Merck would fare with juries if,
these, or similar facts were juxtaposed.
It is galling to see Merck attack the victems of their direct to consumer adds.
Maybe the plaintiff bar should consider a PR campaign to educate the public about big pharma's misdeeds.
Terms like judicial hellholes, Stella awards, campaign contributions, K street lobbying, Chamber of Commerce efforts and daily press releases by Merck, as well as 6 years of tort reform have all had an effect.
It will no doubt take time for the pendulum to swing back but, yesterday is not too soon to be proactive. Every time Merck sullies a victem, we should remind the jury of Merck's low road approach to make the victem pay for their unremitting greed.
Merck will ultimately lose even winning two cases to one. This is due to the large verdicts and punitive damage awards. Not to mention, the insurance fraud case in NJ.
Paul in Indianapolis