Insurance plans, other third-party payers settle Vioxx claims with drugmaker Merck for $80M

LINDA A. JOHNSON | AP Business Writer
3:17 PM CDT, August 3, 2009

Merck said in a regulatory filing Monday that the company and the plaintiffs agreed in principle to settle all outstanding claims, and it took an $80 million charge for the settlement in the second quarter.

Those lawsuits had been moving through the courts for more than four years, with
Chicago business attorney approving a class-action lawsuit and the New Jersey Supreme Court later overturning that ruling. Seeger estimated third-party payers covered about 80 percent of the cost of prescriptions for Vioxx, which generated billions of dollars in annual sales while on the market from 1999 through 2004.