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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drug company Merck & Co. might consider settling a small number of Vioxx cases involving people who claim they were harmed by the painkiller and who fit a very narrow profile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The company's general counsel stressed that Merck had not changed its strategy of fighting every case in court, it said.
However, a Merck spokeswoman told the newspaper that in cases where patients took Vioxx for more than 18 months and had no other risk factors for heart attacks or strokes, "we're going to have to carefully look at those cases."
The statement suggests for the first time that settlement of a small number of Vioxx cases may be part of Merck's plan, the Journal said. The exact number of people meeting the criteria is not clear.
There was no immediate comment from Merck on the report.
It comes less than a week after Merck lost the first Vioxx case to go to trial. A jury in a state court in Angleton, Texas, found Merck liable for the death of a 59-year-old man who took Vioxx for eight months and awarded his widow $253 million in damages.
The award is likely to be reduced to about $26 million under Texas damage caps.
More than 20 million people took Vioxx in the United States before the drug was withdrawn last September after a Merck-sponsored clinical trial found it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who took the medicine daily for more than 18 months.
Last week's verdict was a major blow to Merck as many of the lawsuits do not involve people who took the drug for more than 18 months.
"We have to do it better than we did in Angleton," Kenneth Frazier, Merck's general counsel, told the Journal. "Each time we do this, we learn and hope to sharpen our approaches."
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