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VIOXX CLAIMS
MERCK UK VIOXX RECALL
Time limits do apply and if you have suffered as a result of taking this drug you need urgent advice on how to take matters forward and how to protect your legal position. Our solicitors are personal injury experts and offer free legal advice on the UK Vioxx recall problem. All claims are dealt with using the no win no fee scheme and are completely risk free. We do not ask for any financial contribution from you as the case proceeds.
This anti-inflammatory drug which is used as an arthritis painkiller and is also known as 'Rofecoxib' is part of a family of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors which have recently come under serious scrutiny due to suspicion that users may experience a considerably increased risk of heart attacks or strokes when taking the drug which was first marketed in 1999. This class of drugs also includes Celebrex. Since that time over 400,000 patients in the UK have been prescribed this drug which is used to treat rheumatoid and osteo-arthritis, fever and other conditions such as inflammation of the joints and menstrual pain. The drug was recalled following a press release by Merck's Chief Executive Officer in September 2004 as a result of clinical trials which showed that patients could suffer problems including ‘an increased risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or stroke’. Merck have already received hundreds of claims in the USA where court action is scheduled however they have indicated that they will defend every case. The potential damages, if the claimants are successful, has been estimated by analysts to be over £1,000,000,000 (one billion pounds) in the USA alone.
UK VIOXX RECALL - WHAT THE PAPERS SAY 2005
January 25, 2005 Los Angeles Times
A previously banned report on the risks was published in January 2005. The report indicates that probably over 50,000 deaths occurred to users of this drug during the five years that it was on the market. Over a million patients were surveyed and dependent on the dose the increased risk of heart disease varied from a 50% increase to more than a 300% increase.
January 24, 2005 The Associated Press
Merck & Co. funded research and assisted in setting the parameters of the method of the study and thereafter removed the name of one of its own researchers from the report that ultimately linked this drug to heart attacks and subsequently discredited the findings notwithstanding their own heavy involvement. Merck subsequently confirmed the company’s actions indicating that Merck believed the study’s conclusions "were not supported by the data." Following a further study that confirmed the increased risk of heart attacks and strokes six months later the product was eventually withdrawn on the 30th of September 2004.
January 3, 2005 Reuters
Dr. David Graham the U.S. drug safety officer who warned months ago about risks from Merck & Co. Inc.'s painkiller has been granted permission by the US Food and Drug Administration to publish a study arguing that the now-recalled drug may have caused up to 139,000 heart attacks and strokes.
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