Pharmaceutical company Merck says it will start cutting checks next month for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. Merck announced plans today to fund the $4.8 billion settlement involving about 50,000 lawsuits.

Merck & Co., manufacturer of Vioxx, announced it will make the first payment of $500 million on Aug. 6 into a fund to settle claims by plaintiffs injured by the drug. The settlement fund will eventually total $4.85 billion. By providing the funding for settlements, Merck waives its right to walk away from the settlement deal, originally established in May. More than 60,000 people currently have registered a claim that Vioxx caused heart attack or stroke. Payments to claimants will begin before the end of August.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert Feb. 1, 2008, to highlight important revisions to the warnings and precautions sections of the full prescribing information for Chantix (generic name varencicline) regarding serious neuropsychiatric symptoms.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has informed healthcare professionals about reports of suicidal thoughts as well as some aggressive and erratic behavior in patients who have taken varenicline (Chantix, Pfizer), a smoking cessation product.

MONTGOMERY, ALA - Jere Beasley, founding shareholder of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., announced this morning Alabama Attorney General Troy King has put 69 pharmaceutical companies accused of defrauding Alabama's Medicaid system on notice they have 30 days to settle or be brought to trial.

MONTGOMERY, ALA. - After winning three cases against drug manufacturers, the State of Alabama has requested that the 69 companies in the remaining lawsuits be settled.  Initially, the State Medicaid Agency sued 72 drug manufacturers for falsely reporting reimbursement drug prices to the State.  Two companies settled with the State.  The three companies that have been tried have each been found guilty of fraudulent conduct by Montgomery County juries.

MONTGOMERY, ALA. - Jere Beasley, founding shareholder of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., who is representing the State of Alabama in a series of cases against pharmaceutical companies accused of defrauding the state Medicaid system, will hold a news conference tomorrow, July 3, 2008, at 10 a.m. CT to address important developments in the remaining 69 cases.

(MONTGOMERY)-Attorney General Troy King today announced a second major victory in his litigation against drug companies for massive overcharges to the Alabama Medicaid Agency.  A jury in Montgomery County Circuit Court returned a verdict in favor of the State of Alabama, finding defendants, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. liable for a total of $114,247,233, of which $80,989,539 is from GlaxoSmithKline and $33,257,694 is from Novartis.

The jury reached a decision Tuesday afternoon in the fraud lawsuit brought by the state against two drug companies. The jury awarded the state a little more than $33,000,000 in compensatory damages from Novartis Pharmaceutical Company and almost $81,000,000 in compensatory damages from GlaxoSmithKline also known as GSK.

MONTGOMERY, ALA. - After a week of testimony and two days of deliberations, an Alabama jury today returned a verdict of $80.9 million against pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and $33.2 million against Novartis. The companies were accused of illegally overcharging the State of Alabama for Medicaid drugs.