June 2000
Merck gives FDA results of VIGOR study, which shows Vioxx users suffered five times as many heart attacks as users of the older painkiller naproxen, sold under the brand name Aleve. Merck attributes the disparity to naproxen's cardioprotective qualities rather than a defect in Vioxx, garnering a rebuke from the FDA for making that assertion without scientific proof.
September 2001
Merck receives a warning letter from the FDA about the company's post-VIGOR Vioxx promotional campaign \"that minimizes the potentially serious cardiovascular findings\" and \"misrepresents the safety profile of Vioxx.\"
November 2001
Pfizer's Bextra, also a Cox-2 inhibitor, is approved by FDA.
April 2002
FDA changes warning label on Vioxx to reflect VIGOR study results showing increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.
May 2002
Carol Ernst sues Merck, alleging Vioxx triggered the May 2001 death of her husband, Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old Wal-Mart produce manager who ran marathons.
September 2004
Merck stops long-term APPROVe study, saying it showed Vioxx could double risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. APPROVe had focused on whether Vioxx could prevent reoccurrence of colon polyps, and on cardiovascular effects. Merck then voluntarily withdraws Vioxx from the market.";
VioxxTimeline_051103[i++] = new Array("","2005","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
VioxxTimeline_051103[i-1].body = "February
FDA panel concludes Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra all pose heart risks, but should be available to consumers.
April 7
Pfizer withdraws Bextra from the market at request of the FDA, which said it carries additional risks of serious, sometimes fatal skin reactions. The FDA also says not just Cox-2 inihibitors, but all prescription NSAID drugs, should carry a black-box warning label about cardiovascular risks.
July 13
A jury of seven men and five women is seated to hear the Ernst Vioxx lawsuit in semi-rural Brazoria County, south of Houston.
July 19
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon schedules the first federal Vioxx trial for Nov. 28.
Aug. 19
Texas jury finds Merck liable or the death of Robert Ernst, awarding his widow $253.4 million in damages. That will be reduced to about $26 million under Texas caps on punitive damages; Merck plans to appeal.
Sept. 14
The second Vioxx trial begins with opening arguments in New Jersey Superior Court in Atlantic City, as lawyers for Boise, Idaho postal worker Frederick \"Mike\" Humeston argue his Sept. 18, 2001, heart attack was caused by Vioxx, which he had been taking for about two months.
Oct. 24
In its quarterly earnings report, Merck says that as of Sept. 30, it has been named as a defendant in about 6,400 lawsuits over Vioxx -- about 160 of them potential class-action suits -- and has signed agreements with about 3,000 other claimants temporarily suspending the clock on their states' time limit to file suit. At least several hundred additional lawsuits are filed in October.
Nov. 3
Atlantic County Superior Court jury rules Merck & Co. not responsible for Humeston's heart attack.
Dec. 8
An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine said Merck concealed heart attacks suffered by three patients during a clinical study of Vioxx in a report on the study published in the journal in 2000.
Dec. 12
Merck emerges from its third Vioxx trial with a hung jury when the panel failed, in about 18 hours of deliberations over three days, to side with the drug maker or the widow of a 53-year-old Florida man who died after taking Vioxx for about a month.";
VioxxTimeline_051103[i++] = new Array("","2006","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
VioxxTimeline_051103[i-1].body = "Jan. 23
Jury selection begins in the fourth Vioxx trial in Rio Grande City, Texas, considered by legal experts as one of the most plaintiff-friendly regions in the country.
The jury will be deciding if 71-year-old Leonel Garza's fatal 2001 heart attack was caused by 23 years of heart disease or by about three weeks of taking Merck & Co.'s Vioxx for arm pain.
Feb. 17
A federal jury clears Merck & Co. of any responsibility in the death of a 53-year-old Florida man who had a heart attack after taking its once popular painkiller Vioxx for less than a month.
April 5
A jury in Atlantic City, N.J., finds Merck liable for New Jersey resident John McDarby’s nonfatal heart attack, but not for one suffered by fellow plaintiff Thomas Cona. The jury ordered that McDarby receive $4.5 million in compensatory damages; the panel said Cona should get $45
July 13
Merck & Co. won a legal victory when jurors in a Atlantic County (N.J.) Superior Court decided that the drugmaker's Vioxx painkiller did not cause a 68-year-old woman's heart attack. Elaine Doherty had taken the drug for 2 1/2 years. The jury also found that Merck did not violate New Jersey's consumer fraud law.
Aug. 2
A Los Angeles jury found Merck & Co. Inc. not liable for the heart attack of a 71-year-old man who had taken the company's painkiller Vioxx. Stewart Grossberg started taking Vioxx in 1999 and suffered a heart attack in 2001.
";
// END editorial data