Vioxx Lawsuit Loans

Vioxx Lawsuit Funding

TriMark Legal Funding LLC is one of the few lawsuit funding companies still offering settlement funding on Vioxx cases. The Merck Vioxx settlement will go down in history as one of the largest multidistrict litigation pharmaceutical cases in American legal history.

In 2007, Merck agreed to a $4.85 billion settlement which it expects to resolve nearly 50,000 Vioxx lawsuits. The decision marked the beginning of the end of the four-year Vioxx legal fight, which started when Merck voluntarily removed Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after massive numbers of cardiovascular side effects began surfacing.

The Merck Legacy

Merck & Co. holds a sinister and dubious record among drug giants; it currently holds the world record for the largest, most widespread and most reprehensible act of unbridled corporate greed and irresponsibility in the history of American pharmaceuticals. Why? Merck knowingly put profits before people; it stood by for 6 years and raked in tens of billions of dollars in profits while hundreds of thousands of people suffered strokes, heart attacks and/or died from Vioxx.

Merck possessed clear evidence prior to even receiving FDA approval to market Vioxx that it increased the risk of heart attack by almost 700%, but instead of doing the responsible thing and withdrawing or reformulating Vioxx, Merck took it to market anyway and reaped tens of billions of dollars in profit for six years. Merck finally withdrew the product in 2004 amid tens of thousands of deaths and a firestorm of litigation, but by then the catastrophic damage had already been done.

The obvious rationale was that Merck planned to offset the inevitable multi-billion dollar litigation expenses with the billions of dollars it earned by continuing to sell more of it’s lethal product. Merck disclosed revenue for Vioxx’ declining years at $2.5 billion in 2003 and $1.3 billion in 2004 before it was withdrawn. Merck has refused to disclose revenue from prior years except to acknowledge that Vioxx was one of it’s best selling and most popular products … EVER.

Merck and the Vioxx Debacle
28,000 Dead
160,000 Injured
BILLIONS In Profit For Merck

In one estimate by the FDA, 140,000 personal injuries are attributable to Vioxx in the US alone, but no one knows for sure how many people have actually been injured from it.

World-renowned FDA scientist Dr. David Graham stunned the world with his incredible testimony against Vioxx and the FDA: Some excerpts include:

“Prior to [FDA] approval of Vioxx, a study was performed by Merck named 090. This study found nearly a 7-fold increase in heart attack risk with low dose Vioxx. The labeling at approval said nothing about heart attack risks. In November 2000, another Merck clinical trial named VIGOR found a 5-fold increase in heart attack risk with high-dose Vioxx.”

“Dr. Eric Topol at the Cleveland Clinic recently estimated up to 160,000 cases of heart attacks and strokes due to Vioxx, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.”

“Today, in 2004, you, we, are faced with what may be the single greatest drug safety catastrophe in the history of this country or the history of the world. We are talking about a catastrophe that I strongly believe could have, should have been largely or completely avoided. But it wasn’t, and over 100,000 Americans have paid dearly for this failure.”

“The problem you are confronting today is immense in scope. Vioxx is a terrible tragedy and a profound regulatory failure. I would argue that the FDA, as currently configured, is incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx. We are virtually defenseless.”

Vioxx Litigation & Merck Settlement

Rofecoxib settlement amounts can range from a minimum of $5,000 up to several million dollars. Payments are determined by a complicated formula that factors in how serious a claimant’s injury was, how much of the drug was taken and how many other risk factors the person had that might have contributed to, or aggravated, their injuries.

In the meantime, it is becoming commonplace for people who have been injured by, or who have lost a family member to, Vioxx to find themselves in need of extra money due to loss of income from being out of work (or loss of the primary breadwinner’s income) to pay for bills, medical care and basic living expenses. Pre settlement funding or a lawsuit cash advance can give plaintiffs the money they need now to get by until their full settlement comes through, whenever that is.

What is Vioxx (Rofecoxib)?

Vioxx (Rofecoxib) belongs to the nonsteroidal anti inflammatory class of drugs (NSAID). It works by reducing inflammation, pain and fever.

Merck announced a voluntary worldwide Vioxx recall in 2004 when evidence began emerging that Vioxx significantly increased the risk of life-threatening cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke.