How can losing $4.85 billion be a good result? Well, it could have been much worse for drugs giant Merck, which has agreed to pay this sum to settle the majority of US lawsuits over claims that its painkiller Vioxx caused tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes – many of them fatal.
After Vioxx was withdrawn from the market in September 2004, some analysts predicted Merck would face $30 billion in liabilities. But the company has won 12 of the 17 cases that have come to court in the US so far, and it is unclear whether damages would…
