Vioxx: Duty to Warn...

[Larry Gude]

Read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/26/AR2005082601489.html

You're on the jury. How would you have ruled and why?

 

[Pete]

And people wonder why their blood pressure meds cost $300 a month :dur:

In this case it is hard to decide due to lack of info in the article. On the face it seems that this man's death was incosistant with the "warning" Merc is supposed to have made. Slightly increase risk of heart attack after 18 months of use is NOT what he died from, but a different heart related condition.

The left and their mercenaries the trial lawyers have done a great job in villifying big business. This "Eff them, they can afford it" mentality is paramount to choking yourself to death with your own bare hands. You sit on a jury and make awards such as this, or cheer when one is handed down, then turn around and wimper when you have to choose between buying groceries or buying your cholesterol drugs while you choke down a Ultimate Omlette 100g of fat and 2,000 calories heart attack at Burger King.

Trial lawyers are getting filthy rich whipping up a frenzy of "You were wronged and deserve a huge payday!" is the true misconduct here, yet there is not a wimper of contempt for these bottom feeding rats. Champions of the abused my ass.

 

[willie]

Jury awards bewilder me. They are the same people that complain about the cost of all insurance but their bleeding hearts flood their brain. Merk should be punished if they were truly negligent but not to anyone's profit. The Jury is the problem by allowing people like Peter Angelos and Mark Lanier to bully them into stupid decisions.

 

[Larry Gude]

Ah yes Sam...

this man's death was incosistant with the "warning" Merc is supposed to have made

...thus the Catch-22: Mercks 'duty to warn'.

They should have warned poor Mr. Ernst that some unforseen thing may kill him.

Two major problems I have;

The FDA is the last fail safe which is part of the reason drugs are so expensive and ALSO part of why they are so incredibly safe. If we care about an accident and trying to prevent another one wouldn't it make sense to also hold FDA partially responsible and put them through an examination of their processes and decisions that went into the approval? Not a witch hunt in this case but an effort to make the regulators better as they are the last line.

Secondly, how can we accept a decision that will put $13,000,000 into this womans pockets. SHE did not think he was woth that much! What was she insured for?

Wanna ELIMINATE these suits, right now? Pass legislation requiring life insurance. You insure each other, man and wife, kids if you like, for what YOU decide they are worth to you should you lose them.

Just like auto insurance. Just like having an ID and some cash in your pocket. Talk about social security!

Merck wronged this guy? Merck now has to fight for their reputation and pay the insurance companies claim to the Mrs.

 

[Ken King]

For the most part I think these type of suits should be kicked without even a hearing. This is like blaming Glock for the murder of a person because one of their products was being used in the act.

As for Vioxx, it is a prescription medication and as such shouldn't the prescribing physcian be the one providing the warnings? Afterall, they are the one that did all the tests and supposedly know the patient. They are the ones that dish out these pills and are (technically) better educated then the typical lay person to understand the effects that these drugs might have on a person.

 

[Larry Gude]

But how, Ken?

How do we get a judge to toss out suits like this?

My point is that, suppossedly, the duty to warn is the catchall. It's the pounding on the table when you have no facts nor the law on your side.

This lawyer got a jury to convict and award based on a heart attack that left no trace.

Then they decided it was worth $250 million.

I've always argued that lawyers should have the same ethical responsibilty as doctors; a hyocratic oath, a do no harm clause.

This guy even had the gall to argue he's only gonna get 10%, or $800,000, out of this after expenses.

How does a company warn you that you may have an un-traceable, un-detectable and, in fact, un-noticeable heart attack if you take a pill their research and the FDA says is pretty safe??????????????????

If they just say that, are they OK?

"Warning, something mysterious and un-provable may happen to you if you take this medicine. It may have been something we overlooked. It may be nothing. It may be the stars mis-aligned. Good luck!"

 

[Railroad]

Here's a novel concept: PATIENT duty to ask questions and do some self-directed research (web searches and the like). My mother was offered Vioxx. After asking a few questions (in response to a sort of leading statement by the physician), she tried it and immediately stopped it at the first sign of any side effects. But she knew the DOCUMENTED risks before she decided to take it.

As adults, and caregivers of those unable to learn and decide, we should be able to exercise reasonable diligence about such things.

 

[Larry Gude]

I disagree...

Here's a novel concept: PATIENT duty to ask questions and do some self-directed research (web searches and the like). My mother was offered Vioxx. After asking a few questions (in response to a sort of leading statement by the physician), she tried it and immediately stopped it at the first sign of any side effects. But she knew the DOCUMENTED risks before she decided to take it.

As adults, and caregivers of those unable to learn and decide, we should be able to exercise reasonable diligence about such things.

...sick people are at a terribile disadvantage to begin with; they WANT something to make them feel better, soon. Unless we expect people to have a basic knowledge of human biology and modern chemistry how can we expect the normal, average person to have a CLUE as to what they are being told and what it means?

If I took all the papers I signed to get my mortgage seriously, I'd never sign them. They are nothing but warnings and caveats designed to protect everyone in the chain...except me.

If I took the warning labels on medicines seriously, I'd never take them for the same reason PLUS they ALL say they could kill me or make my wee wee fall off.

There is room for government in our lives.

 

[Ken King]

Judges and our legal system needs to understand that not all deaths are the result of a culpable action. To get around the "duty to warn" if I was a manufacturer of anything I would require everything I made to have the following warning: "Sometimes sh!t happens. Use at your own risk."

 

[Larry Gude]

Ok...

Judges and our legal system needs to understand that not all deaths are the result of a culpable action. To get around the "duty to warn" if I was a manufacturer of anything I would require everything I made to have the following warning: "Sometimes sh!t happens. Use at your own risk."

...how would you attack that as a lawyer?

 

[Ken King]

...how would you attack that as a lawyer?

Well that's the problem, right now you can attack anything, but in this case the end user is being warned that it is up to them to use the product or not.

Our litigious society will sue at the drop of a hat and unless as you say a Hippocratic Oath for lawyers is created we will continue to have this nonsense left to the courts and emotionally swayed morons on the jury that understand less about the law then they do about the chemical and physical reactions of medications.

 

[vraiblonde]

Warning!

Use of Southern Maryland Online may cause everything bad under the sun to happen to you. You could have your wife leave you for a fellow forumite, lose your best friend, lose your job, get carpal tunnel, and the list goes on. So any bad thing you can think of, know that Southern Maryland Online can cause it and consider yourself warned.

There - I've done my duty.

 

[Ken King]

Use of Southern Maryland Online may cause everything bad under the sun to happen to you. You could have your wife leave you for a fellow forumite, lose your best friend, lose your job, get carpal tunnel, and the list goes on. So any bad thing you can think of, know that Southern Maryland Online can cause it and consider yourself warned.

There - I've done my duty.

Good idea. Maybe you should add that as a link at the bottom of the pages so that it is readily available for all to read.

 

[virgovictoria]

The studies Merck is accused of ignoring suggest a small increased risk of a heart attack among people using Vioxx for more than 18 months. Robert Ernst had used Vioxx for only eight months, and he didn't die of a heart attack. He died of a different heart ailment known as arrhythmia. Mark Lanier convinced the jury that the arrhythmia could have been caused by an earlier heart attack that left no trace.

Without being at the trial or having the case study specifics at hand... I would have to say that it doesn't seem to sit right based on the info that the Post provided.

IF this were a perfect world killingme), the prescribing physician would ascertain a "best plan of treatment" for a patient with his/her meds, the instructions and expected side effects and precautions. The patient would then get the pharmacy info and instructions on print-out when he/she picked up their meds (or whoever picks up the meds for them) and can then read and call either the physician/office or the pharmacy about usage, long-term effects, side effects, interactions and so-on, if they have questions....

But then, what would the lawyers do?

 

[virgovictoria]

Without being at the trial or having the case study specifics at hand... I would have to say that it doesn't seem to sit right based on the info that the Post provided.

IF this were a perfect world killingme), the prescribing physician would ascertain a "best plan of treatment" for a patient with his/her meds, the instructions and expected side effects and precautions. The patient would then get the pharmacy info and instructions on print-out when he/she picked up their meds (or whoever picks up the meds for them) and can then read and call either the physician/office or the pharmacy about usage, long-term effects, side effects, interactions and so-on, if they have questions....

But then, what would the lawyers do?

This is in response to "Duty to Warn"...btw..

Additionally, if a pharmaceutical is to cause death or other pathology, I feel the manufacturer should look to the depth of its gross endeavor and seek to compensate the family of loss.

 

[tomchamp]

60 minutes!

Is doing a thing on this right now!

 

[Pete]

Tort reform and closer regulation is the only answer. 200,000,000 Million is an insane award based on emotion whipped up by an attorney looking to hit it big with his 60% take.

 

[virgovictoria]

Tort reform and closer regulation is the only answer. 200,000,000 Million is an insane award based on emotion whipped up by an attorney looking to hit it big with his 60% take.

And,