NEW YORK - (AP) The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and... Read More

TRENTON, N.J. - (AP) The maker of the world's best-selling diabetes drug is facing hundreds of lawsuits and likely a big sales drop as suspicion grows that taking the pill for more than a year raises the risk of bladder cancer. In June, Takeda Pharmaceuticals... Read More

NEW ORLEANS - (AP) The federal judge overseeing the thousands of lawsuits filed over withdrawn painkiller Vioxx has ruled that the lead lawyers in the case will get $315.3 million, while other lawyers who sued Merck & Co. will share $1.2 billion.... Read More

TRENTON, N.J. - (AP) Drugmaker Merck & Co. plans to appeal a federal court verdict that a former subsidiary caused the commonwealth of Massachusetts to overpay pharmacists for a widely used asthma medication, the company said Thursday. After a three... Read More

INDIANAPOLIS - (AP) Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday it filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Co., accusing the larger drugmaker of breaking their commercialization deal for diabetes drugs by teaming with the German company Boehringer Ingelheim... Read More

NEW YORK - (Mealey's) A New York federal jury on Feb. 5 ordered Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to pay $285,000 to a plaintiff for allegedly failing to warn her or her doctor that Fosamax carries a risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) ( In Re: Fosamax... Read More

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - (Mealey's) A New Jersey state court jury on April 18 returned a defense verdict for Merck, Sharpe & Dohme in a Fosamax jaw injury trial, the company said in a press release ( Jo Ann Sessner v. Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, Inc... Read More

NEW ORLEANS - (Mealey's) The judge supervising the Vioxx multidistrict litigation on Oct. 19 awarded $315.3 million to the group of attorneys who conducted discovery and other work of benefit to all federal litigants and those participating in the... Read More

FRESNO, Calif. - (Mealey's) A federal jury in California on April 1 returned a verdict for the plaintiffs in the first phase of a mass tort action against the owners of an industrial site in Merced County, Calif., for allowing hexavalent chromium... Read More

NEW YORK - A New York federal jury hearing the fourth Fosamax bellwether trial on Oct. 3 found that Merck's osteoporosis drug was not defectively designed and did not cause a plaintiff to develop osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) ( In Re: Fosamax Products... Read More

TRENTON, N.J. - (Mealey's) A New Jersey federal jury on April 29 quickly found that Fosamax did not cause a plaintiff's femur fracture, the first verdict in a case in which a plaintiff claims that the osteoporosis drug weakened her thigh bone... Read More

BOSTON - Merck, Sharp & Dohme Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor and to pay $950 million to resolve criminal charges and civil claims stemming from its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx a decade ago, the U.S. Department of... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. - (Mealey's) Virginia does not recognize either equitable or statutory tolling for class actions brought by different plaintiffs in another jurisdiction, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled March 2 in an appeal by four Fosamax jaw injury... Read More

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - (Mealey's) A New York federal jury on Nov. 2 found Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. liable for a woman's osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) and awarded her $10.45 million, according to the parties ( Barbara Davids v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals... Read More

BOSTON - (Mealey's) A Massachusetts federal jury on Oct. 1 ordered a defunct Merck & Co. Inc. subsidiary, Warrick Pharmaceuticals Corp., to pay $4,563,328 for causing the state to pay inflated prices for the asthma drug albuterol ( Commonwealth... Read More