The Wall Street Journal (6/26, Bray) reported that Merck & Co. lost a product-liability suit over whether its osteoporosis drug Fosamax (alendronate) caused osteonecrosis.
Bloomberg News (6/25, van Voris, Weidlich) reported, “The jury set damages at $8 million,” which was “$3 million more than the $5 million” sought by the plaintiff’s lawyers. The case is the first of hundreds of “Fosamax cases, including suits with multiple patients,” to go to trial.
“The jury concluded that Fosamax was ‘unreasonably dangerous due to defective design, and that its defective design was a legal cause of'” the plaintiff’s injury, the AP (6/26, Johnson) reported. Lawyers argued that “evidence showed that Fosamax provides no benefit in preventing bone fractures for women…who did not have osteoporosis.” The plaintiff suffered from “osteopenia, a condition in which bone density is beginning to decrease, and Fosamax is approved for preventing fractures in such women.” Reuters (6/26) also covered the story.
The above story was reported in the A merican A ssociation of J ustice News Brief for June 28, 2010 . John R. Badal of Liever, Hyman & Potter, Reading, PA has been a member of this important national t rial attorney organization for more than 27 years an d has been a sustaining member for more than 8 years.