US Judge orders Merck & Co to disclose Vioxx trial costs

A New Jersey Judge has ordered US drug major Merck & Co to release details of its expenditure on legal trials of the now withdrawn painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib), according to a report by the Associated Press. Judge Carol Higbee's decision follows a request from plaintiffs' lawyers that the firm pay legal fees of $5.6 million from a trial that found that it had committed consumer fraud in its marketing of the drug. Merck said that the level of expenses was excessive, which prompted opposing lawyers to ask how much it had spent on trials. Kent Jarrell, a spokesman for Merck's attorneys, said that the opposing lawyers had spent the majority of their time litigating the role of Vioxx in the two plaintiff's heart attacks, as opposed to the consumer fraud aspects of the case. He went on to say that, since the plaintiff's lawyers were only entitled to fees derived from the consumer fraud section of the case, the requested sum was unreasonable. Ellen Relkin, a lawyer for one of the two plaintiffs, said that legal fees and expenses associated with the personal injury section had been removed from the bill.