Enough to settle?

At least 55,000 Vioxx plaintiffs took a first step toward applying for some settlement money from Merck & Co. Inc. by meeting a deadline at midnight on Jan. 15 to register to participate in a settlement hashed out between a group of plaintiffs lawyers and Merck. The settlement, announced in November 2007, calls for the New Jersey-based Merck to pay $4.85 billion into a settlement fund. Merck won’t fund the settlement unless a minimum of 85 percent of registered plaintiffs accept it, but with so many plaintiffs registering their claims by Jan. 15, Merck is confident the settlement will be funded, says Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Merck. “We expect to meet and exceed the 85 percent threshold,” Jarrell says, noting that Merck believes as many as 60,000 plaintiffs may register. On Jan. 18, Jarrell says, Merck will report a final count to U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, who presides over In Re: Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, the federal multidistrict Vioxx litigation. Vioxx plaintiffs are a long way from getting any cash. “Right now people are simply required to register their existing claims. This is not a deadline for opting in or in effect opting out. The deadlines for that start on Feb. 28 through June,” Jarrell says. Individuals who may be eligible for a share of the settlement pot are those who suffered heart attacks, ischemic strokes or sudden cardiac arrests as a result of ingesting Vioxx, a painkiller.  Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in 2004.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys