Victim’s Family Awarded $32 Million in Vioxx Lawsuit
Merck suffered another setback on Friday when a Texas jury awarded $32 million in damages to the family of Leonel Garza, a 71-year-old Texan who died of a heart attack after briefly taking the prescription painkiller Vioxx.
Garza’s family sought more than $1 billion in damages arguing that the prescription painkiller Vioxx had caused the blood clots that led to his fatal heart attack. A cap on punitive damages under Texas law will reduce the award to $7.75 million, but Garza’s family is pleased with the verdict.
Garza had been taking Vioxx for less than a month when he died of a heart attack in April 2001. This is the first case in which a jury concluded that short-term use of Vioxx caused a heart attack. Attorneys for Merck, however, said they would appeal the case contending that Garza had a history of heart disease and should have never been prescribed Vioxx.
Merck currently faces over 11,000 Vioxx lawsuits and plans to defend each one individually. Merck has lost three of the five lawsuits tried thus far, each resulting in awards for damages of more than $10 million.
Vioxx hit the shelves in 1999 but was pulled five years later when evidence showed that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Documents have recently surfaced which suggest that Merck knew about the drug’s dangers long before it stopped selling the drug in 2004. About 20 million Americans took the drug during this time and the number of lawsuits against Merck continues to grow as the public becomes more aware of the dangers of Vioxx.
Kenneth L. Frazier, Merck’s general counsel, said that while they don’t expect to win every case that goes to trial, they do believe they have grounds for appeal. The victim’s family, however, remains optimistic. Joe Escobedo, the family’s lead counsel, said, “We thought that Mr. Garza’s case was a very, very strong case.”