Medication bills

[Gonz]

Are about to go up.

ANGLETON, Texas - A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable Friday for the death of a man who took the once-popular painkiller Vioxx, awarding his widow $253.4 million in damages in the first of thousands of lawsuits pending across the country.

After the verdict Friday, Merck shares dropped $2.35, or 7.7 percent, to close at $28.06, approaching the 52-week low of $25.60. Merck lost almost $5.2 billion in market capitalization.

AP

 

[unclehobart]

It will be in appeals for a decade. It wont affect the financial bottom line for quite a while... but just like gasoline... it wont stop them from using it as a justification to hike prices today.

 

[Gonz]

If it were just the one, I'd laugh it off. It was just the beginning. Now, it's just the beginning.