The decision marks the beginning of the end of the four-year legal saga, which began when cardiovascular side effects forced Merck to pull Vioxx off the market in 2004, triggering tens of thousands of lawsuits, sullying its once-spotless reputation and forcing out its then-chief executive.

The Vioxx case has cost Merck at least $6.38 billion, including more than $1.53 billion through March 31 on legal costs for defense research and individual trials, most of which it has won.

Vioxx, which was launched in 1999, brought Merck revenue of $2.5 billion at its peak in 2003and $1.3 billion in 2004. Merck has not been disclosing revenue from prior years.

On Thursday, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck said more than 97 percent of eligible… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Health-officials-seek-participants-for-PFC-study/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Health-officials-seek-participants-for-PFC-study/ Legal Headlines Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT Starting this month, officials from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) will begin recruiting participants for the East Metro Perfluorochemical (PFC) Biomonitoring Study.

The study will directly measure the amount of the PFCs in 200 participants who live in the east metro area, where the drinking water has been found to contain the chemicals.

The 3M Company produced PFCs at its Cottage Grove facility from the late 1940s until 2002. Common products that contain the chemicals include non-stick cookware, stain resistant carpets and fabrics, fire-fighting foam, adn other industrial applications.

The study stems from 2007 state legislation directing the MDH to develop and implement a statewide Environmental Health Tracking and Biomonitoring program.

It will determine whether adults in the study area have elevated levels of PFCs in their bodies compared to the general population, based on data collected nationally.

To be… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/VA-faults-self-over-Chantix-test/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/VA-faults-self-over-Chantix-test/ Legal Headlines Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT Department of Veterans Affairs watchdogs have concluded that the department failed to alert veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder in a timely manner to the dangers posed by a drug it was prescribing, VA officials acknowledged Wednesday under sharp questioning from lawmakers.

The legislators also were told that the department's inspector general has begun investigating a report that research personnel falsified certain study records at the VA Medical Center in the District.

"That is something we need to make sure never happens again," VA Secretary James B. Peake said of the delayed warnings to veterans using the smoking-cessation drug Chantix, which has been linked to psychotic and suicidal behavior in its users.

He said that veterans participating in a smoking-cessation study can continue to take the drug, but that an internal review conducted by agency doctors will have the final say in a report to Congress on July 18.

"I have… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Columbus-gets-$3.4M-damages-check/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Columbus-gets-$3.4M-damages-check/ Legal Headlines Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT The city of Columbus was awarded $3.4 million Tuesday for its share of punitive damages in its lawsuit against a Phenix City plant.

"Absolutely, we are excited. It moved so fast," City Manager Isaiah Hugley said Tuesday after the city was wired $3,462,255.68. "We just signed the documents yesterday. Money has been wire transferred today."

The city of Columbus, local boat dealer John Tharpe and south Columbus resident Owen Ditchfield won their suit against Continental Carbon in 2004. They had said their homes, businesses and buildings had been damaged by carbon black dust emitted from the plant.

The city was awarded $570,000 in compensation, Tharpe received a $100,000 personal award and $1.2 million for his Action Marine business, and Ditchfield was awarded $45,000 plus interest, but the punitive damages were appealed. On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected all appeals of the $17.5 million in punitive damages, clearing the way for Tuesday's release of the… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Health-Department-will-measure-PFC-levels-in-adults-near-3M-plant,-landfills/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Health-Department-will-measure-PFC-levels-in-adults-near-3M-plant,-landfills/ Legal Headlines Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT THE LATEST: Continuing concern about possible contamination from chemicals produced at 3M's Cottage Grove facility has state health officials seeking volunteers for a study of perfluorochemical levels in residents near the plant and several landfills.

BACK STORY: PFC-containing wastes were disposed in a number of landfills in the east metro and have seeped into the groundwater and contaminated numerous private wells and some municipal wells.

3M has financed a filtering system for two Oakdale wells and hookups with city water for more than 200 Lake Elmo homes whose wells showed PFC levels above state health guidelines.

STUDY IS MANDATORY: The legislatively required study will measure PFC levels in 200 adults who live in the east metro area, where the drinking water has been found to contain PFCs, the state Health Department said.

TO BE ELIGIBLE: Adults must live in one of the two… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Why-doctors-should-worry-about-preemption/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Why-doctors-should-worry-about-preemption/ Legal Headlines Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT A leading drug company may be poised to win a landmark legal victory next fall. If the drug manufacturer, Wyeth, prevails in a case soon to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court (Wyeth v. Levine),¹ drug companies could effectively be immunized against state-level tort litigation if their products that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are later found to be defective.

A medical-device company won such a victory in April. In Riegel v. Medtronic,² the Supreme Court determined that a product-liability lawsuit against Medtronic in a state court was preempted because the device had received FDA approval. Preemption is a legal doctrine based on the supremacy clause of the U.S.… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Alabama-gives-cos-30-days-to-settle-Medicaid-case/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Alabama-gives-cos-30-days-to-settle-Medicaid-case/ Legal Headlines Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 3 (Reuters) - The state of Alabama said on Thursday it would offer 69 drug companies it sued over alleged Medicaid price-fixing 30 days to reach a settlement before taking further legal action.

"The defendants will have a 30-day window in which to make an acceptable settlement offer. After that time, there will be no further settlement negotiations by the state," Jere Beasley, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told a news conference.

(Reporting by Peggy Gargis, editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

An attorney for the state of Alabama has asked jurors to make two drug companies pay as much as $800 million in a lawsuit accusing the firms of fraud in Medicaid drug pricing.

The state claims the fraud lasted from 1991 to 2005.

Attorneys for GlaxoSMithKline and Novartis say the prices were proper. Attorney Jere Beasley, representing the state, told jurors in closing arguments Monday that GlaxoSmithKline should have to pay almost $81 million in compensatory damages and as much as $500 million in punitive damages. Beasley said Novartis Pharmaceuticals should have to pay about $33 million in compensatory damages and between up to $200 million in punitive damages.

An attorney for GSK, Don Jones, said the company did nothing wrong and that the lawsuit was… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Jury:-2-drug-firms-owe-Ala.-$114M-in-price-fraud/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Jury:-2-drug-firms-owe-Ala.-$114M-in-price-fraud/ Legal Headlines Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A state court jury on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running Medicaid drug pricing scheme and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages.

The jury found that GlaxoSmithKline should pay the state $80.8 million in compensatory damages and that Novartis should pay about $33.7 million in similar damages. But it declined to order any punitive damages.

An attorney representing the state, Jere Beasley of Montgomery, said the verdict should help Alabama and other states settle similar lawsuits with drug companies.

Overall, the state had asked for as much as $800 million in total damages in what its attorneys claimed was a scheme to overcharge for Medicaid prescription drugs from 1991 to 2005.

The jury awarded the amount of compensatory damages Beasley had asked for in closing arguments.

"I think the jury looked at the evidence and decided the fraud was substantial… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Glaxo-and-Novartis-must-pay-Alabama-$114-million/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Glaxo-and-Novartis-must-pay-Alabama-$114-million/ Legal Headlines Tue, 01 Jul 2008 05:07:00 GMT July 1 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG inflated drug prices paid by Alabama's Medicaid program and must pay the state $114.3 million in damages, a jury ruled after a two-week civil-fraud trial.

After deliberating for 5 1/2 hours yesterday and today, the state jury in Montgomery, Alabama, found the drugmakers liable for misrepresentation. It awarded $81 million in compensatory damages against Glaxo, the world's second-largest drugmaker, and $33.3 million in compensatory damages against Novartis. It awarded no punitive damages. The trial began June 16.

"They've operated a shell game,' stealing money from Alabama, Jere Beasley, a Montgomery attorney representing the state, told jurors yesterday in closing statements. "Now the same shell game has been tried with this jury.'

The trial of London-based Glaxo and Basel, Switzerland- based Novartis is the second stemming from Alabama's 2005 lawsuit against 70 drugmakers. The state alleged the… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/More-than-59,000-register-for-Vioxx-settlement/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/More-than-59,000-register-for-Vioxx-settlement/ Legal Headlines Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:06:00 GMT NEW ORLEANS - More than 59,000 people have registered claims against drugmaker Merck & Co. for injury from painkiller Vioxx, and administrators have enough records to review about 9,100 of those claims.

With two deadlines early next week in the $4.85 billion settlement against Merck, "we still receive claimants coming forward for the first time," Orran Brown of BrownGreer PLC, the law firm administering the claims, told U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon on Friday.

But people whose paperwork arrived early will be able to get partial payments before long. "We're working toward making initial payments in August, and we're on track for that," Andy Birchfield, a plaintiffs' attorney, said during Friday's status conference.

Attorneys and individuals have registered 59,194 people with BrownGreer _ the first step toward filing a claim that the once-popular painkiller caused a heart attack or stroke _ including 59 in the past month, Brown said.

In 2004 a federal jury ruled in favor of the city of Columbus, Ga., local boat dealer John Tharpe and South Columbus resident Owen Ditchfield in their suit against the Continental Carbon plant.

The jury awarded $3.2 million for compensation and court costs and $17.5 million in punitive damages. The company paid the compensation costs last June but has continued appealing the punitive damages.

Last year the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta affirmed the decision that Continental Carbon and its parent company, China Synthetic Rubber Corp., dumped carbon black into the air.

Lawyers in the case said the reinforcing and pigmenting agent - used in tires, inks, cables and coatings - drifted across the Chattahoochee River, causing damage to the… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Volvo-recalls-43-defective-passenger-cars-in-S.-Korea/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Volvo-recalls-43-defective-passenger-cars-in-S.-Korea/ Legal Headlines Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:06:00 GMT SEOUL, Jun 23, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Global carmaker Volvo will recall 43 units of its passenger cars sold in South Korea due to manufacturing defects, the government said Monday.

Subject to the recall are XC70 D5 and C30 passenger car models which were found to have defective software and parts that could lead to malfunction of airbags and separation of tires, respectively, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

Recall will be applied to 40 units of the XC70 D5 model produced and imported between November 2007 and March 2008 and 3 units of the C30 model made and shipped to the local market in January this year, the ministry said.

The owners of the defective cars will get repairs free of charge at the carmaker's affiliated service centers starting Monday.

Attorneys for Novartis Pharmaceuticals and SmithKline Beecham Corp. said the drugs were properly priced through a method understood by the state agency.

The trial, expected to last about two weeks, is the second to be held on more than 70 lawsuits filed by the state accusing pharmaceutical companies of overcharging Medicaid for prescription drugs. The first ended with a jury awarding the state $215 million against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP.

Similar lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies are pending in other states, including Mississippi, South Carolina, Utah, Hawaii and Alaska.

Jere Beasley, a Montgomery lawyer representing the state, told jurors Tuesday that Novartis and… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/CFP-standards-could-make-suing-agents,-carriers-easier/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/CFP-standards-could-make-suing-agents,-carriers-easier/ Legal Headlines Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:06:00 GMT Investors might find it easier to sue insurance agents and carriers, thanks to new standards from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., attorneys said.

Two provisions in the updated Standards of Professional Conduct require that CFP holders place the client's interests ahead of their own at all times, and that certificants who provide planning services act as fiduciaries to clients.

Although the new standards are effective July 1, the CFP Board last week granted a six-month reprieve for members and won't enforce the rules until Jan. 1.

Attorneys say that these rules may hold carriers, as well as insurance agents, responsible for questionable sales.

"I believe in the litigation realm, lawyers will ferret out the up-chain relationship between the CFP and the insurer underwriting the product they're selling," said Joseph H. Aughtman, a consumer fraud attorney at Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles PC in Montgomery, Ala.

The event raised nearly $100,000 dollars. This figure is in a large part a testament to the respect and admiration felt by so many towards Jere Bealsey and his charitable work, said Wayne McMahan. The speakers for the evening included Rev. Lester Spencer, Rev. John Ed Matheson, Lewis Gillis, McMahan, and Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. It was emceed by Alva Lambert and presentation… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Senate-Hearing-on-'Roof-Crush'-in-Automobile-Rollovers/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Senate-Hearing-on-'Roof-Crush'-in-Automobile-Rollovers/ Legal Headlines Thu, 29 May 2008 05:05:00 GMT Kevin Moody, a grieving father who lost his son Tyler on January 16, 2003 due to injuries from 'roof crush' has that day forever etched in his memory: "Five and a half years ago, my son, Tyler, was killed in a single vehicle rollover accident in his 1995 Ford Explorer which slid off the road and rolled over at a speed of only 40 miles an hour, into a flat grassy field. The weak roof in his Ford Explorer collapsed and crushed him to death." Since Tyler Moody's death, Kevin Moody has been on a mission to get the roof strength standard, FMVSS 216, upgraded and convince Congress to pass new legislation regulating and mandating a new and adequate roof strength standard beyond what NHTSA, (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) has proposed.
Last September 6, on what would have been Tyler's 23rd birthday, Oklahoma Senator (Dr.) Tom Coburn received a Vaultz box hand-delivered by Kevin Moody and Paula Lawlor, founder of the non-profit,… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/FAA:-Side-effects-of-Pfizer's-Chantix-too-dangerous-for-pilots/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/FAA:-Side-effects-of-Pfizer's-Chantix-too-dangerous-for-pilots/ Legal Headlines Thu, 22 May 2008 05:05:00 GMT Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The anti-smoking drug Chantix was removed by the Federal Aviation Administration from the list of medications deemed safe for pilots and air traffic controllers.

The FAA ban followed a public health advisory issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that contained a five-point safety guide on the severe changes in mood and behavior persons taking Chantix may go through.

The FAA said the connection of Chantix to mental confusion and other problems may endanger the lives of air travelers. Chantix is also known by its generic name varenicline.

FAA based its order on a study posted online by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). Among the side effects of Chantix, manufactured by Pfizer, were loss of consciousness, lapses in alertness, nausea and muscle spasms.

Les Dorr, spokesman of the FAA, said the agency would send letters to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association to inform them of the new FAA… ]]> http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/FAA-bans-use-of-Chantix-by-pilots,-controllers/ http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/FAA-bans-use-of-Chantix-by-pilots,-controllers/ Legal Headlines Thu, 22 May 2008 05:05:00 GMT Pfizer Inc.'s once promising anti-smoking drug Chantix received another blow Wednesday after a nonprofit group's report about serious physical side effects prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to ban the drug's use by pilots and air traffic controllers.

The report, from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, points out hundreds of serious problems reported since the popular drug was approved in May 2006, including vision and heart problems, dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures, and abnormal spasms and movements.

"We have immediate safety concerns about the use of varenicline (Chantix) among persons operating aircraft, trains, buses and other vehicles, or in other settings where a lapse in alertness or motor control could lead to massive, serious injury," the researchers said in the report.

FAA spokesman Les Dorr said the Chantix ban is effective immediately and that the agency was notifying unions representing pilots and controllers. He… ]]>