Sunday, September 13, 2009

Jury Deadlock Ends a Trial Over Merck’s Bone Drug

Published: September 12, 2009
Jurors sent the judge desperate hand-scrawled notes saying they were deadlocked over a verdict in the trial, which had been monitored as a bellwether for hundreds of other similar lawsuits against Merck.

In the case in United States District Court in Manhattan, a 71-year-old retired deputy sheriff from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Shirley Boles, contended that taking Fosamax from 1997 to 2006 cause her jawbone tissue to die.

Millions of women have taken Fosamax, made by Merck, to offset bone loss associated with menopause.

During the trial, lawyers for Mrs. Boles used expert witnesses, reports in medical journals and internal company documents to bolster their argument that Merck knew or should have known that Fosamax can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw, or jawbone death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/business/12drug.html

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