Month: August 2005

From the NY Times today:

In interviews, several jurors said they had intended the verdict, which included $229 million in punitive damages, not to reward Mrs. Ernst but to punish Merck for its actions. Derrick Chizer, one of the jurors, said that the jury wanted to send Merck and the drug industry a message: “Stop doing the minimum to put your drug on the market.” Other jurors made similar comments.

The $229 million punitive damages figure was not picked at random, but referred to a 2001 Merck estimate of additional profit the company might make if it could delay an F.D.A. warning on Vioxx’s heart risk. Mr. Lanier mentioned that monetary figure in his closing argument.

The decision on VIOXX was announced this afternoon while I was sitting here in Charlotte, preparing for Yet Another Migration Weekend.

From everything I’ve read about the case, there were three questions that had to be answered in the affirmative for the outcome to turn out how it did. Did Merck market a defective product? Was there adequate warning that the product was defective? And was the product considered unreasonably dangerous, such that the benefits outweighed the harm? The jury answered yes to all three.

Nonetheless, I had long considered the plantiff’s case to be a weak one. The individual at the heart of the case, Bob Ernst, died of arrhythmia, not a heart attack. That the coroner who performed the autopsy now states that it is likely he died of a heart attack, not arrhythmia, some three years later seems flimsy to me. She then engages in true speculation, stating

Ernst probably had a heart attack because a clot blocked the blood flow in an artery that was already clogged with plaque. She also said CPR conducted on Ernst probably dislodged the clot.

Merck loses a case based entirely on the speculation of the individual who performed the autopsy some three years later gave while on the stand. There’s nothing, at least reported by the media, that indicates there’s any concrete proof behind the claim.

Given the result, it looks like anyone who took the pill should hop on the lawsuit bandwagon as a quick way to make a million or two. All you need is someone who can testify that Vioxx caused your stubbed toe, and you’re good to go. Why let some form of proof get in the way?

And so I’m back in Charlotte for another weekend. As exciting as our building is down here, I’m hoping I have an opportunity to see something else besides a large room with no windows.

A worm is currently attacking Windows 2000 machines around the world. Microsoft at its finest.

Among companies affected by the worm and its variations were ABC, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and Caterpillar Inc. In California, San Diego County said it needed to cleanse 12,000 computers of the bug. ABC News producers had to use electric typewriters Tuesday to prepare copy for their “World News Tonight” broadcast, according to spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.

Here at work, we’re beginning our patching across our entire environment to try to prevent infection. The sooner the better, since one infection point tends to spread so rapidly in these cases.