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Drug & Device News
New Jersey and Texas Courts Reduce Vioxx Awards
On May 29, appellate courts in New Jersey and Texas threw out or reduced multi-million dollar awards to plaintiffs who claimed they were injured by Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx. A three-judge panel of New Jersey's Appellate Division held in the consolidated cases of McDarby v. Merck & Co., A-0076-07, and Cona v. Merck & Co., 0077-07, that a $15.7 million award to plaintiff John McDarby should be reduced to $4.5 million because the federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDCA) pre-empted New Jersey's product liability act's punitive damages remedy, N.J.S.A. 2A:58C-5c. (Cona had won no damages.) The appellate court left McDarby's reduced award for compensatory damages in place, however, because it found that state tort-law remedies were not pre-empted by federal law. In the Texas case, Carol Ernst v. Merck & Co. Inc., the three-justice appellate panel reversed the $26.1 million judgment for Carol Ernst, whose 59-year-old husband died in 2001 after taking Vioxx for about nine months. Stated the court, 'We find no evidence that [Ernst's husband] suffered a thrombotic cardiovascular event, i.e., a myocardial infraction triggered by a blood clot. Accordingly, appellee failed to show that the ingestion of Vioxx caused her husband's death.' Ernst's attorney, W. Mark Lanier of Houston, said following the decision, 'I'm upset, and I'll appeal it.'
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.