Merck talks settlement but only in the future

Vioxx litigation is not progressing as fast as many victims would like to and Merck is enjoying the delay. Right now there is a trial going on California and the only one expected in 2006. While it is too early to say who is "winning" - Merck legal team apparently believes that they are winning since they are yet to hand out a single penny to any victim. On the contrary, they are boasting that some 3,000 cases are not going to trial because the victims were so discouraged with long delays and hassles, that they simply gave up.

Merck CEO Richard Clark, who replaced Raymond Gilmartin, who was fired for his incompetent handling of recall of the painkiller, boasts in an interview, "We know our strategy is right. It's case by case, day by day, jury by jury," Clark said. He adds, "This case by case (strategy) is going to take us years until we are satisfied that the case load is the proper case load. We're not there yet." In other words, a settlment is years away and only for those who have the patience or those who don't die from the permanent damage that the drug has caused to their health.

Experts put Merck's Vioxx liabilities into tens of billions of dollars. In a related development, Merck may also be forced to pay over $5 billion for cheating the IRS in taxes.