It is now 2010 and we are continuing to represent a large number of Canadians who have had heart attack and stroke related injury after using Vioxx. Drug cases sometimes take many years to resolve and this long wait is normal. Merck in the US had been insisting it would continue to fight every case and then suddenly agreed to work out a settlement for all US claims. This is likely to happen in Canada and elsewhere in the world at some point. I believe the timing has more to do with the complexity of the US settlement implementation than it does with any court proceedings in Canada. Once the certification issue is resolved then a long court case will begin to move with a detailed discovery process that Merck can afford to fund indefinitely. Once certification is finalized in Canada claimants here will have to decide whether to accept the class action as the basis for their compensation or to opt out and seek compensation based on their individual case. When that happens we will be ready to advise our clients and guide them through that process. At some point a business decision will be made by Merck to settle claims outside the US, and Canada may or may not be early on Merck’s agenda. Merck can not be forced to settle and the road to trial is a long one. Extreme patience is still required. The following paragraphs set out the history of the Vioxx case for Canadians until now:
Vioxx was a very popular, profitable and highly promoted anti-inflammatory drug manufactured by Merck and rushed to market in 1999 to compete with Pfizer’s similar drug Celebrex. When evidence, originally suppressed by Merck, came out about cardiac dangers the drug was recalled from the market September 30, 2004. At that time our firm sought out individual clients to make claims against Merck. Many of these claims are for fatal incidents where we represent the families of Vioxx users who died after using the drug. Across Canada a number of “class action” claims were issued by lawyers. Most of those lawyers who each act for a “representative plaintiff” are united in a national coalition with the primary court proceedings in Toronto, Ontario. We have worked with those lawyers to a degree to assist in showing the strength of the claims by Canadians related to Vioxx, but our focus has been on individual clients rather than participating directly in the class action Court proceedings in Canada. Claims were brought for some of our clients in the New Jersey court but those claims were not allowed to continue as a term for settlement of American claims.
Claims against the manufacturer Merck were disputed hotly and there were mixed trial results in the United States before a settlement was reached. Some cases were in the US Federal Court and some were tried in individual state courts. The American Vioxx settlement is being completed and we expect discussion of a Canadian settlement to follow the completion of the American settlement. There are a number of unusual situations which were not considered when the American settlement was agreed upon and there is some fine tuning to do before it is completed. This stage is likely to end before settlements in Canada and other countries will be considered by Merck. There has been a settlement of an American class action case to reimburse those who paid for Vioxx prescriptions but that does not affect individual injury claims. In the United States injury claims are not dealt with by class action. The Canadian class action in Ontario for people injured by Vioxx use have been certified but that is under appeal in Ontario as Merck continues to delay the proceedings until they are ready to talk. We expect to be in direct talks with Merck when that time comes. We are hoping this will still happen this year, 2010 and we are continuing our work towards that with our file preparation. With Merck there are a huge number of claims all over the world and the first three years after recall of the drug were ones where Merck denied any responsibility for the effects of Vioxx. This denial remains in effect in Canada but can not logically continue as U.S. cases settle. We are still looking at pursuing individual settlements for many of our clients in the event of a class action settlement happening. We will be contacting each of our clients when it looks like there will be a Canadian settlement. In 2009 there have been no developments related to possible Canadian settlement and our approaches to the company have been rejected as premature. An appeal of class action certification was finally dismissed but there is still an application by Merck to the Ontario Court of Appeal to stop proceedings. On October 22 the Supreme Court of Canada put an end to Merck’s attempt to stall the class action due to interprovincial conflict and confirmed the rejection of a separate Saskatchewan claim by that province’s appeal court. If the Ontario Court application is allowed to be heard there could still be considerable delay to class action proceedings. We should hear soon, and if “Leave to Appeal” is denied Merck will have to start dealing with claims sooner. We are still waiting for a court decision on the class action but we are working on our own strategy for settlement and for the procedure for advancing individual claims once the class action certification is complete. We are in contact with counsel for Merck and have been advised that they are not willing to talk yet about settlement but we are attempting to pursue a dialogue on how individual claims in Canada will proceed once the class action proceeding certification issue is finalized. The lawyers for Merck in Canada appear to have clear instructions to simply continue to focus on delaying the class action proceedings in court for now. We will contact all of our clients directly for instructions once certification of the class action is finalized and we will report what we can about settlement and claims procedures here. Some of our discussions must be kept confidential as this website is accessible to anyone. You may still contact our firm for representation now if you believe you have a Vioxx injury claim for yourself or a family member. Murray Miskin, February 12,2010
A QUOTE: “We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been.” George W. Merck II (1935)
I thank you very much for the updates you have been to supply your clients with. I look forward to reading the progress and the issues that have been encountered.
Thanks for your positive feedback. I am hoping we will have some news before too long.
Thanks for the update on vioxx, hope you will have a settlement soon, and also your new website is great.
Thank you for keeping us updated on the progress, I hope something is done soon with this as it has been a very long time.
Just would also like to send great thanks for the detailed updates in the last few years, and that hopefully some day sooner than later we can have this settled. The new website is a fantastic design so cheers to that!!!
We also would like to thank you for the past updates. It’s hard to wait when you don’t hear anything but your website always gives us a heads up about where the case is at. We look forward to hearing from you directly in the future. Love the new forum! Kudo’s
I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU IN THE FUTURE.HOPE YOU WILL HAVE A SETTLEMENT SOON.
THANK YOU.
12.09.09.
Having just read Bloomberg it would appear that the Supreme Court has refused to hear Merck’s appeal, although it is still under appeal in Ontario Court’s. They also report that the Saskatchewan class action is now included in the Ontario Action. Not certain how that will play out if true. Unless Merck has other delay tactics in mind perhaps we will finally see some progress toward a settlement. Irregardless we are very cautious about the drugs we take now and are very wary of anything offered by Merck.
THANKS FOR UP DATE ON VIOXX,HOPE YOU WILL HAVE A SETTLEMENT SOON AND ALSO YOUR NEW WEBSITE IS GREAT.
THANH LAM.
TORONTO,ONT.
Thanks for the update. 5 years in the working and it doesn’t sound like compensation will be forthcoming anytime soon! I hope you’re preparing for the next class action suit…H1N1 vaccine! With Canada not taking their own initiative to test but rather depending on other countries findings is just asking for trouble!!! I don’t know if I’ll live long enough for that one to settle!
appreciate seeing updates on your website.
we are all waiting for some sort of an outcome.
After 5 years, it’s good to know that the only people that are being compensated are Vioxx’s lawyers.
Thanks for your late October update, Your new website is very good. Hope by early new year, the Vioxx folks move off their current stand, and start to talk settlement.
Jane Anderson Montreal
[...] is the original: 5+ Years: Canadian Vioxx Claims Update | ADR Works By admin | category: canada vioxx | tags: appeals-involving, cbc, competing-class-action, [...]
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There is a expression that say expectancy is worse than dead, i,m the one who had heart attack and operation related to injury after using Vioxx and waiting over 5 years for
compensation like other Canadians.
I hope you do a serious action with the help of supreme court of Canada.They have to
make a pressure to Merck Co. and protect us after more than 5 year waiting.Why they
did settlement for over 45000 U.S citizen and we have to wait for ever,where is the law and
order and what kind of protection Canadian citizen have, how supreme court of Canada
want to protect us? why we are different from U.S citizen,we are all human beings and
have the right to be judge in the same manner.
I,m sure I,ll will die soon and can not wait for another 5 years-and so,I really fed up
from this kind of judgements who easily play game with the live of the people for their profits.
Mostapha, We are all very frustrated with the time this is taking. Nowhere in the world is Vioxx settled except for the USA where the settlement is still being “processed” and many people have not seen money yet. I am hoping the case does not go to the Supreme Court of Canada where Merck hopes to take it for a further appeal of rulings against them. We are now waiting for a decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal on whether to further consider Merck’s appeals. If that is rejected the case will proceed finally to be dealt with in Canadian courts on its merits. Once that happens settlement in Canada is more likely.
Yes I was just wondering when we would get another update on the Vioxx procedings? and when we may get a new update there has not been anything since Nov.13th 09. When do you expect a decision on the class action.
It is unnerving to think how vocal Merck was in advertising the use of Vioxx and how silent they have become when it comes to compensating so many innocent people throughout the world. Merck knew long before the lawsuits it was a destructive drug and sadly, as long as they maintain high-profile lawyers, the users of these drugs might be long gone and never benefit from what little they might receive for their suffering. What happened to compassion and humanity! A very big thank-you from our family for fighting for the little guy & keeping us up-to-date.
Here is a link to a Bloomberg article on some recent developments with the Merck shareholder lawsuit.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-09/merck-to-pay-12-2-million-to-settle-vioxx-suits-update1-.html
It’s absolutely unreal that Merck allowed for nearly 28,000 deaths before finally pulling the product of shelves. Did no one over there on their board of directors have a conscience?
It would seem that Merck is defending their bottom line. Ethics and money do not go hand in hand. Merck has reduced their liability for Vioxx by billions. I am surprised that with so many deaths no one at Merck has faced criminal charges. When you look at some of the large corporate failures over the past several years which have caused no deaths, persons responsible have faced criminal charges and jail sentences. Merck’s loyalties seems to lie with their stockholders, board members and company officers. I would not necessarily like to see Merck go bankrupt but they have an obligation to those they have harmed and those responsible should face justice.
Interestingly Merck merged last year with another drug company Schering-Plough. I quote: “Schering-Plough’s vision is to “Earn Trust, Every Day” with the doctors, patients, customers and other stakeholders served by its colleagues around the world.” The combined company is called Merck and they remain unwilling to take responsibility for the harm caused by Merck’s products.
It is clear that these companies are all about profits and really do not care about the people harmed by their products. Do they have a conscience? I think not.
The battle continues.
Schering-Plow said they have a vision. Merck had a vision years ago:
“We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been.” George W. Merck II (1935)
Thank you Murray for your updates and your blog. It has been very helpful to us to be able to see what is transpiring with the lawsuit.
The quote by George Merck indicates he was a man of principle.
I do recall reading somewhere that Merck has been around for hundreds of years, started of in Europe. Merck has been headed by a Merck family member all those years except for when Vioxx was produced. The director at that time was the first non Merck family member to head the company. I believe he was an Engineer. I do believe he has been replaced.
A very sad state of affairs for the Merck family, but now let us hope they will live up to the principles of their ancestors and do what is right for the people their company has so grievously harmed.
Just read that Merck is paying out the last of the $4.85 billion claims in the U.S. settlement. It is estimated that all those claims should be paid out by the end of June.
It appears that Merck paid all their settlements today in the US and expect to have the lawsuits paid out by June.
Does this mean that you can now start getting ready to go to bat again for the Canadians.
Many people have put their faith in your firm to push forward on our behalf. People have died.
YOur concern is appreciated and an update would be most welcome;
Joan and Craig, That is correct Merck has paid the balance of the US Vioxx settlement into a fund that is continuing to process and pay out claims to American victims of Vioxx. Meanwhile, Merck continues to pay millions to its lawyers to fight our Vioxx claims in Canada and everywhere else outside of the United States. I do see this payment as a step towards consideration of a Canadian settlement. I will provide a detailed update soon.
Thank you for the update Murray, you have the only site that gives current updates and allows people to comment. Your site is very good and informative, thanks again.
It has been reported that Merck lost their first Vioxx suit in Australia, no word on the amount awarded. Merck plans to appeal.