Pharmaceutical Litigation
Texas Appeals Court Overturns Vioxx Verdict
Posted May 15, 2008, 07:47 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The Texas Court of Appeals has overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict against the maker of Vioxx, citing insufficient evidence that the painkiller caused the heart attack that killed the plaintiff’s husband.
The court noted that Leonel Garza had taken Vioxx for only a short time and said there was not enough evidence to connect the drug to the blood clots that caused the heart attack, the Associated Press reports. A jury had ordered Merck & Co. to pay Garza’s widow Felicia $32 million, but the award was reduced to about $7.75 million under a Texas law that caps damages.
Leonel Garza was a smoker with a history of heart problems, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The appeals court said the plaintiffs failed to offer evidence excluding the pre-existing heart condition as the cause of death.
The Garza case was tried before Merck reached a $4.85 billion settlement resolving most of the suits over Vioxx, which was linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The Texas decision gives Merck 10 victories and four losses in trials that have reached verdicts, the AP story says.
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