Merck unlikely to have to pay like Wyeth for Vioxx suits, attorneys say.

Publication: The Philadelphia Inquirer (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer

Byline: Josh Goldstein

PHILADELPHIA _ The flood of phone calls to plaintiffs' lawyers began soon after pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. announced Thursday that it will withdraw its painkiller Vioxx from the market due to safety concerns.

But just how bad will the legal fallout get for the Whitehouse Station, N.J., drug maker?

Merck is bracing for an onslaught of lawsuits, but some analysts _ and even some lawyers who represent Vioxx patients _ doubt that the company faces anything on the scale of the failed diet-drug combination known as fen-phen.

More than 100,000 lawsuits were filed by patients claiming they were injured by fen-phen. The massive litigation has cost Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth $16.6 billion so far.

"Our preliminary estimate is that about 16,632 people...

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