Merck Australia Wins Appeal in Vioxx Case
From Associated Press (October 12, 2011)
SYDNEY -- An Australian court has overturned a judgment that found
the once-popular painkiller Vioxx was unfit for consumption and led
to an Australian man's heart attack.
The Federal Court's decision on Wednesday reverses a 2010 ruling that had found in favor of an Australian man who blamed the since-recalled drug for a heart attack he suffered.
The 2010 judgment had awarded Graeme Peterson 287,000 Australian dollars ($285,000) in compensation. The earlier ruling had also opened the door for claims from hundreds of other litigants in a lawsuit against U.S. pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. over the painkiller.
Vioxx was taken off the international market in 2004 after research showed it raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Posted: October 2011
