Today’s announcement that Merck and Schering-Plough will settle class action lawsuits arising from the sale of Vytorin shows how class action lawsuits protects consumers.
Vytorin, a combination of two drugs called Zetia and Zocor, was a top-selling drug intended to reduce cholesterol. Millions of Americans were prescribed the drug in an effort to reduce cholesterol by reducing arterial plaque. Significant revenue was generated for Merck and Schering-Plough through these prescriptions.
There was one problem though. Merck’s own clinical trial to study the effectiveness of the drug, called ENHANCE, allegedly showed that Vytorin was ineffective in reducing arterial plaque. Merck did not release the results of the study and, instead, continued to make money selling Vytorin.
Consumers would have little hope of successfully or economically bringing individual suits to recoup money paid for a worthless drug. Class actions, however, allow similarly situated consumers to pool all of their claims together in an effort to secure justice from companies who have cheated them. We are proud to have represented tens of thousands of consumers from throughout the country in consumer protection class action lawsuits. Consumer class actions oftentimes represent the best and only way for consumers to obtain justice.
