NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Seeger Weiss LLP, one of the nation's premier plaintiffs' law firms, announces that founding member Christopher A. Seeger has obtained an agreement in principle with Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) that will provide global resolution for consumer fraud claims brought by non-governmental, third-party purchasers of Vioxx(R) prescriptions, including union health and welfare plans, self-insured employers, and insurers providing prescription benefits. This pending settlement agreement, the first of its kind, encompasses nearly two hundred cases that have been filed in the federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) in New Orleans before the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana and in the coordinated mass-tort litigation in Atlantic City before the Honorable Carol E. Higbee, New Jersey Superior Court of Atlantic County. Christopher Seeger negotiated this settlement with Merck and a group of third-party purchasers represented by Thomas M. Sobol (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP).
The third-party purchasers have alleged, in part, that Merck failed to disclose significant safety risks associated with Vioxx(R) when marketing the drug to third-party payors and their representatives, who were responsible for deciding which prescription drugs should be made available to patients, and ultimately picked up their cost. As a result, insurers and other third-party payors purchased Vioxx(R), which was withdrawn from market over safety concerns on September 30, 2004, while equally effective and safer alternatives were already available on the market at a fraction of the cost.
Under the proposed agreement, Merck will provide partial reimbursement to non-governmental purchasers, including union health and welfare plans, self-insured employers, and insurers, who from May 1999 to September 2004, expended billions for Vioxx(R) prescriptions on behalf of their employees and prescription plan members. As stated by Christopher Seeger, "this unprecedented aggregate settlement will ultimately include hundreds of third-party purchasers and is a great result for businesses and other organizations that struggle to provide cost-effective prescription benefits for their members, and who unknowingly purchased an unsafe drug, when there were safer, less-expensive alternatives."
Seeger Weiss has served on the forefront of the Vioxx(R) litigation since its inception. The firm filed one of the first Vioxx(R)-related third-party purchaser ("TPP") claims in 2003 and successfully obtained certification of a nationwide class of TPPs in July 2005. Although the New Jersey Supreme Court later ruled in 2007 that the third-party purchaser claims could not proceed as a class action, more than a hundred individual TPP actions have been filed in Atlantic County, New Jersey following that decision, and Seeger Weiss serves as liaison counsel for those plaintiffs in the coordinated New Jersey Vioxx(R) litigation. Mr. Seeger, along with Seeger Weiss partners David R. Buchanan, Jeffrey S. Grand, Diogenes P. Kekatos, and of-counsel James A. O'Brien, have aggressively litigated the TPP actions.
In November 2007, Christopher A. Seeger, along with co-counsel on the Vioxx(R) Negotiating Committee, concluded a $4.85 billion global settlement with Merck covering more than 45,000 personal injury claims for heart attack, sudden cardiac death, and ischemic stroke. It represents the largest global settlement of personal injury claims stemming from a pharmaceutical product in U.S. history. Earlier in 2007, Mr. Seeger served as lead trial counsel in Humeston v. Merck, wherein he and the Seeger Weiss trial team obtained a $47.5 million jury verdict for injuries caused by Vioxx(R), an award that was included in the Top 20 Personal Injury Awards of the Year (2007), published by the New Jersey Law Journal. Seeger Weiss has been appointed as both Liaison Counsel and Co-Lead Counsel in the New Jersey State Vioxx(R) coordinated actions by the Honorable Carol E. Higbee, and as Co-Lead Counsel in the federal Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) by the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon.
About Seeger Weiss
With a team that includes former federal and state prosecutors, as well as trial attorneys who are alumni of some of the nation's largest and most highly respected defense firms, Seeger Weiss attorneys have earned industry leading reputations in the areas of drug and toxic injury; personal injury; class actions; securities litigation; and commercial disputes. Seeger Weiss attorneys, along with co-counsel, have recovered more than $2 billion on behalf of firm clients and class members. The firm was named to the National Law Journal's prestigious Plaintiffs' Hot List for 2007 and 2008. With more than 30 attorneys, Seeger Weiss has offices in New York's Financial District; Newark, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; and Los Angeles, CA.