Legal News

Merck, Schering-Plough Settle Vytorin Suits

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

Pharmaceutical companies Merck and Schering-Plough said Wednesday the two companies agreed to pay $41.5 million to settle suits that the companies? marketing of cholesterol-lowering drugs Vytorin and Zetia was misleading.

The cases involved 140 suits seeking class action status in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The agreements were reached with plaintiffs seeking to represent proposed classes of consumers, insurers and other entities and with a separate group of independently represented health plans that purchased, used or paid money toward the purchase of Vytorin or Zetia from the time of the products' introduction to the market, the companies said in a statement.

"These agreements will allow the companies to avoid continuing defense costs and remain focused on discovering, developing and delivering novel medicines and vaccines," Bruce N. Kuhlik, executive vice president and general counsel of Merck, said in the statement.

Dechert represented Merck and Schering-Plough in the settlement. The team was led by Princeton, N.J., partner Ezra Rosenberg and included partners Kathleen O?Connor, Diane Sullivan, Benjamin Barnett, Hope Freiwald, Christopher Michie, Ronni Fuchs, Will Sachse and Richard Berkman.

Questions about the drugs? efficacy arose after they companies released the ENHANCE study which released safety and efficacy concerns about the drugs.

The companies, which are set to merge by the end of the year, had a pre-existing joint venture to market the drugs. They both said the settlement is not an admission of any wrongdoing.

According to reports by The Wall Street Journal, this is the second settlement over the drugs in as many months. The companies paid a $5.4 million settlement to 35 states and the District of Columbia after the states looked into how the companies handled the release of the ENHANCE study and whether they delayed making the results public. More settlements could be in the works for the companies, WSJ reported, because there is an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the marketing of the drugs.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).