April 21, 2006

A South Texas jury has found Merck liable for the death of a 71-year-old with a long history of heart disease who never took more than a week's worth of Vioxx in samples, and that weeks before his death. More details on Garza this weekend. Peter Lattman is reporting $7 million compensatory and $25 million punitive, though the latter number will be reduced to under a million dollars. The stock market rather quickly mostly shrugged it off.