Well if that was the case, then why were doctors prescribing Vioxx to patients that had these pre existing conditions in the first place? Were the doctors presented with all of the facts about Vioxx that they needed before prescribing it? Were the doctors just being irresponsible? Did Merck do something to convince doctors to prescribe the drug anyway? These are questions that we may never know the answers to.

One thing is clear though. Merck recognized that there was a problem so they yanked the drug overnight. And now it appears that this is not all that Merck did. They may also have initiated an internal cover up. In an effort to shield the company some of the power players in the whole Vioxx fiasco were let go. At the same time Merck’s insistence that Vioxx was safe suddenly changed to being safe unless you suffer from this or that. It is just one more example of a big drug company being dishonest and causing harm to consumers.

And then some people died. A few people suffered from strokes and a few others had heart attacks while on the drug. Did the drug cause this? Were these people predisposed to these maladies because of things like hypertension (high blood pressure)?

Well anyway, Merck reacted to the onslaught of greedy lawyers that were beating down their doors with frivolous lawsuits by pulling the drug off the market. Well I don’t suffer from hypertension. This Vioxx proved to be a miracle drug for me. I’m not saying it was for everyone, but it was for me! I feel bad for the families of people who died, but was Vioxx the sole reason these people died? Really, there were no other factors involved? So now I am back to using the steroids that I don’t want to use.

And this reminds me of the Vioxx fiasco that Merck had a few years back. Now the lawyers are going to hop on this bandwagon for all it is worth. Just like the Vioxx lawsuits, these lawyers will be advertising on TV looking for anyone who was on the drug so they can make money in yet another stupid lawsuit. And who pays for this? We all do because when the pharmaceutical companies get hit in the pocketbook, it trickles down to us consumers!

Vioxx is an anti-inflammatory drug that was approved by the FDA in 1999. Doctors thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and prescribed it to anyone that they could think to prescribe it to. More than 80 million people were prescribed this so called miracle drug.

But then people started having heart attacks and strokes. Merck quickly took the drug off the market because it was widely recognized that it was causing these serious problems. Many people died.

There were lawsuits of course, but many people were not compensated in any way. So a class action suit arose by plaintiffs who wanted to be reimbursed for their out of pocket expenses that came about because of their Vioxx use. It went to court in New Jersey. But the judge decided not to award the plaintiffs anything because the court thought it would simply be too difficult to administer. Imagine that; the courts siding with the great big drug company instead of siding with the people that got hurt at their hands.

Well one of these drug companies is a little different in my opinion. Back in the late 1990s a company called Merck gained FDA approval for a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug called Vioxx. This drug was prescribed to millions of arthritis patients worldwide with wonderful results. Unfortunately as the years passed it was realized that this drug may be contributing to heart attacks and strokes.

Did Merck wait for the FDA to step in and do something? No they didn’t! Despite the fact that taking this drug off of the market voluntarily would cost them millions of dollars in profits, they chose to do the right thing. Vioxx was taken off of pharmacy shelves in late 2004 because the executives at the pharmaceutical company that sold it decided to do the right thing.

Then two years ago, she got really sick, and no one could tell us why.  She kept saying it was because of all the drugs the hospital had given her during her hip replacement surgery 6 months earlier.  At first we just kind of ignored it because she is 76  and well, as people get old they get sick right?  But as we became more involved with her care, we both came to the conclusion that there might be some validity to her claims.  I don’t know if it was Vioxx she was given or something else; seems like every new wonder drug eventually ends up in a lawsuit (fairly or not). 

She passed away two weeks ago, and now my sister and I are ready to pick up the fight where she left off, but can we benefit from the lawsuit she started?  Or are we acting like modern day ambulance chasers?  My husband says I’m reacting out of grief, but am I?  I really don’t know.

He was lucky enough that right out of law school, he was a part of a firm that dealt with all of the Vioxx litigation. I don’t know much about the history except from what I understand, it was an effective medicine with horrible side effects.  I guess.  Anyway, he became one of the more prominent New Yor Vioxx lawyers and was in very high demand.

Over the years however, as the suits have settled, his work has slowed down significantly and he’s really starting to feel it. Actually, we’re all really starting to feel it.

His reputation was based on being the top New York Vioxx lawyer in town, and now that people are focusing on other things, its like he and his firm don’t exist anymore.  Isn’t that silly?  Like they only understand the law as it applies to Vioxx.  Crazy, but they’re not laying people off to adjust for the downturn, and he’s on the short list, I fear.