April 11, 2007

In our newest featured column, Ted analyzes the state of play in class actions (as distinct from individual lawsuits) arising from the sale of the Merck painkiller Vioxx, the "vast majority" of which fall into one of four categories: 1) personal injury, 2) medical monitoring, 3) consumer fraud, and 4) shareholder/securities claims. While it is possible that some or many individual suits against Merck will do well, it would appear that the prime constituency likely to benefit from the class-action theories is the lawyers themselves; of the various plaintiff groups, perhaps the likeliest to obtain a big settlement (paradoxically?) are large businesses arguing that they overpaid for Vioxx in the course of running employee health insurance plans.