News-Press
Naples Daily News
Lee man files suit against drug-maker over Vioxx
Jacksonville.com
The Associated Press
A Lee County furniture mover said Tuesday that he never suffered from heart problems before taking the pain reliever Vioxx, which its maker has yanked off the market after widespread reports it may cause strokes and heart attacks.
So Fort Myers resident Robert Lane, 38, filed what is believed to be one of the first two lawsuits in Florida, accusing New Jersey-based Merck & Co. Inc. of marketing a product it knew years ago could cause deadly damage. Lane's suit, filed Monday in Lee County Circuit Court, joins a suit filed Oct. 12 in Collier County Circuit Court on behalf of a Naples man who died in 2003.
"Understand that first of all, I could have lost my life if I continued taking it," Lane said Tuesday from his home. "If they would have taken it off the market when they were told to, I never would have gotten here."
He now lives with a tightness in his chest and a feeling that his heart at times is racing. Lane said he's always been in good shape, exercising and keeping fit — especially with his work moving furniture for Norris Furniture. But now, after injuring his calf on the job Sept. 16 and his 13-day stint on Vioxx, he feels exhausted, Lane said.
Lane's suit, released to the public Tuesday, is a class-action complaint stating that Merck knew Vioxx could cause strokes and heart attacks, but ignored research studies reporting these findings during and after the drug was on a fast-track for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in May 1999.
He seeks an unspecified amount in damages from the failure to warn, product liability and negligence suit.
"It was effective for the arthritis, but I don't think anybody would trade a little pain for a heart attack or stroke," said Fort Myers lawyer Marcus Viles, who represents Lane in his classaction suit.
In a Sept. 2001 letter from Thomas W. Abrams, director of the FDA's division of drug marketing, advertising and communications, to Merck President and CEO Raymond V. Gilmartin, Abrams chastised Gilmartin for producing marketing material on the drug that he called false, misleading and unfairly balanced.
"You have engaged in a promotional campaign for Vioxx that minimizes the potentially serious cardiovascular findings that were observed in . . . (a research study), and thus misrepresents the safety profile for Vioxx," Abrams wrote. "...Patients on Vioxx were observed to have a four- to five-fold increase in myocardial infarctions" compared with another drug.
Anita Larsen, a Merck spokeswoman, said she couldn't comment on the two Southwest Florida suits specifically because they are pending litigation. However, "the company believes it has meritorious defenses to the Vioxx lawsuits and will vigorously defend against them."
Numerous lawsuits have been filed to date throughout the United States, one suit in Ontario, Canada, and one in Tel Aviv, Israel. Lawsuits against Merck regarding Vioxx have been filed in Kentucky, Arkansas, Washington state, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Vermont, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Viles said the drug could cause an estimated 26,000 to 27,000 heart attacks and strokes nationwide, and with Florida's booming elderly population, thousands of residents here may be eligible to join the suit.
"Ultimately Merck will pay in the billions," he said, comparing the Vioxx suits to the Fen-Phen weight loss suits. "Heart attacks aren't cheap, nor are strokes." Lane said one of his doctors prescribed Vioxx after he injured his calf moving furniture Sept. 16 in a development. On Sept. 30, he started feeling chest pains and by Oct. 3 he stopped taking the drug. He was admitted to the hospital Oct. 4, undergoing an array of tests even after his Oct. 6 release.
Lane said he doesn't have a family history of heart problems. He still doesn't know what's wrong with his heart — no doctor will tell him, he said. And they won't say conclusively that it was caused by Vioxx, he said, although he knew immediately after Merck pulled the drug off the market Sept. 30 as reports of strokes and heart problems rolled in. "They knew before," said Lane, a devout Jehovah's Witness. "They had people to tell them to stop. But they didn't. It was greediness."
Naples resident Frances Dunleavey, who filed the first Florida lawsuit — in Collier County on behalf of her husband, Edward — declined comment on her suit Tuesday. "The average victim is going to be outraged when they learn the drug they trusted was subject to concealment," Viles said. "They were concealing some really sinister dangers."