AAJNTIC CITY, N.J., April 11 (Reuters) - A jury on Tuesday awarded $9
million in punitive damages to a New Jersey man who blamed Merck & Co.
Inc.'s (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Vioxx painkiller for his heart
attack.
Last Wednesday, the jury awarded $4.5 million in compensatory damages
to 77-year-old John McDarby, saying Vioxx was a significant contributing
factor in his heart attack and that Merck had failed to adequately warn
of the drug's risks.
In order to award punitive damages, the jury of six women and two men
in New Jersey Superior Court needed to find that Merck withheld material
information on Vioxx from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that
the company's actions were deliberately meant to harm.
Under state law, punitive damages -- awarded as punishment to rectify
a wrong committed by a defendant -- were capped at $22.5 million, or
five times compensatory damages.
Shares of Merck, which said it would appeal the jury verdicts, were
down 10 cents to $34.32 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
As part of its deliberations, the jury considered whether Merck
intentionally withheld from regulators an analysis of several clinical
trials done by a company statistician in 2000 that showed a higher
incidence of heart attacks among patients taking Vioxx than among
patients taking other drugs.
Merck, which faces nearly 10,000 Vioxx product liability lawsuits,
pulled the $2.5 billion-a-year drug off the market in September 2004
after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke
among those who used it for at least 18 months.
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