FBI Agent Wins Merck Lawsuit Over Vioxx.

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Merck Suffers a Pair of Setbacks Over Vioxx By ALEX BERENSON Published: August 18, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/business/18merck.html?th & emc=th In a significant setback for Merck, a federal jury in New Orleans awarded a retired F.B.I. agent $51 million yesterday for a mild heart attack that he suffered after taking the painkiller Vioxx for almost three years. The verdict is the fourth multimillion-dollar loss for Merck, Vioxx’s maker, in litigation over the drug. It came the day a state court judge in New Jersey overturned an earlier verdict in favor of the company in another Vioxx suit. Merck, the third-largest American drug maker, said it would appeal both decisions, but the company’s shares fell almost 6 percent. The company faces more than 14,000 lawsuits, covering almost 30,000 plaintiffs, from people who claim they or their relatives suffered heart attacks or strokes after taking Vioxx. The company says it did nothing wrong in researching or marketing the drug and plans to defend every

lawsuit. "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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