Originally published September 8 2005
Jury's $253 million decision against Vioxx sparks Australian class action suit
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to Australia's Sunday Herald Sun, the recent jury decision to award $253 million to the widow of a Texas man who died after using the Merck and Co. product Vioxx has opened the doorway for law firm Slater and Gordon to pursue a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 100 Australian Vioxx users.
In the first of thousands of lawsuits pending across the world, a Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co liable for the death of a former Vioxx user, awarding his widow $337 million in damages.
Slater and Gordon special counsel Richard Meeran welcomed the US verdict yesterday and said he felt confident of success in Australia.
The law firm is preparing to launch a class action on behalf of about 100 Australians later this year.
"The result is what we expected based on our own independent assessment.
He said the Australian litigants - all of whom have had heart attacks and used the pain reliever for at least 18 months - had even stronger cases than that of the late Robert Ernst, whose widow Carol was behind the legal action in Texas.
after being linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
Mr Meeran claimed Merck had known of the risks prior to the drug being released on the market and that one of its own studies conducted in 2000 showed it was dangerous.
At least 300,000 Australian arthritis sufferers had been using the drug including Vioxx "super user" Ian Lewington.
Mr Lewington, of South Melbourne, who is part of the class action, had used it for more than five years to control his debilitating rheumatoid arthritis pain.
I was taking twice the amount of other people," he said.
But the 68-year-old is now convinced it was the trigger behind the blood clot he developed only months after he started taking the drug and the heart attack he had in August last year.
"They knew it had detrimental effects a long time before they raised the alarm, which is wrong," Mr Lewington said.
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