WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will decide whether shareholders can sue Merck & Co. over whether the drugmaker provided adequate information about the risks of its former blockbuster painkiller Vioxx before it was pulled from the market.
The high court agreed Tuesday to review Merck’s challenge to an appeals court’s reinstatement of a class-action securities lawsuit.
Investors had accused Merck of providing misleading information or omitting information about the risks of Vioxx. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the November 2003 lawsuit on grounds of a statute of limitations.
But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to allow the lawsuits.
Vioxx was pulled from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, because it doubled risks of heart attack, stroke and death.
In a statement, Merck said it is pleased the Supreme Court agreed to rule on what constitutes proper notice to investors under securities laws.
“We believe that the District Court in this case correctly held that the intense public discussion of data surrounding Vioxx” had put investors on notice of the relevant issues long before Merck announced new scientific information and voluntarily withdrew Vioxx from the market, the statement said.
“The evidence shows that Merck properly informed the (Food and Drug Administration) and the scientific community about scientific data as it emerged,” Merck wrote.
After it pulled Vioxx from the market, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck was hit with a deluge of lawsuits from shareholders, patients and survivors claiming Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes, and from insurance plans seeking reimbursement for their costs for covering Vioxx prescriptions.
