Bloomberg News (4/20, Feeley, Lawrence)
reports, "A unit of Merck & Co., the second-largest US drugmaker,
pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge as part of a $950 million
settlement of a US government probe of its illegal marketing of the painkiller
rofecoxib [Vioxx]." It added that "an official of Merck Sharp & Dohme
said today that the company agreed to plead guilty to one count of misbranding
Vioxx," and "US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston accepted the
plea as part of the drugmaker's agreement to pay a $321.6 million criminal fine
and $628.3 million to resolve civil claims that it sold Vioxx for unapproved
uses and made false statements about its cardiovascular safety."
The AP (4/20) reports, "Merck won about
two-thirds of the Vioxx personal injury lawsuits that went to trial." The
company "settled around 50,000 patient lawsuits in November 2007 for $4.85
billion, which was much less than Wall Street had initially expected."
"Thursday's sentencing related specifically to Merck's admission that it
had marketed Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis between 1999 and
2001, even though the Food and Drug Administration did not approve the drug for
that use until 2002," Modern Healthcare (4/20, Carlson, Subscription
Publication) explains. "When the civil settlement was announced, Merck
said the agreement did not constitute any admission of liability or wrongdoing
by the company."
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