Merck Wins Another Case

Tim Cavanaugh | February 18, 2006

A federal jury in Louisiana has cleared Merck & Co. of responsibility in the death of a 53-year-old Florida man. Richard Irvin died of a heart attack in 2001, after taking Vioxx for less than a month. This was a retrial of the Irvin case, after a jury in Houston deadlocked on the decision in December. It's the second time Merck has been cleared in a suit over the drug, which the company withdrew from the market in 2004, and its first victory in a federal court. A Texas court found Merck liable in a Vioxx-related suit last August, while a New Jersey court cleared the company in November.

David Henderson and Charles Hooper made Merck's case last year. I ranted against the Merck jurors.