A New Jersey jury ruled in favor of
pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.in a Fosamax femur fracture trial in
Trenton on April 29. The Plaintiff claimed its Fosamax osteoporosis
treatment caused her femur to fracture spontaneously while she was gardening. The
case was Glynn
v. Merck & Co., 3:11-cv-05304, U.S. District Court for the District of New
Jersey.
Merck,
which is the second-largest pharmaceutical company in the US, is facing more
than 3,300 lawsuits claiming that it ignored signs that extended use of
bisphosphonates such as Fosamax caused femurs to deteriorate in some patients.
Another 1,230 cases allege that Fosamax caused similar fractures in jaws.
Bernadette
Glynn, 58, sued Merck over claims the company, based in Whitehouse Station, New
Jersey, was aware Fosamax might cause brittle bones and increase fracture risks
years before the drug was made available to the public. The case was seen as a
bellwether for how other cases might be resolved.
At
the start of the three-week trial, Merck’s lawyer, Chilton Varner, said
consultants’ early warnings about the drug were “theoretical” and that early
studies showed people who took Fosamax instead of a placebo had fewer
fractures.
Glynn
claimed Fosamax weakened her femur over a seven-year period, causing the thigh
bone to snap in April 2009, when she bent over in her garage to pick up a
frog-shaped lawn ornament while gardening.
Glynn’s
leg was repaired with surgery and the use of rods, according to her complaint.
She and her husband, who sued in September 2011, appeared in court on April 9
with their children. She has never had osteoporosis and was prescribed the drug
to address low bone-mass density, Pennock during the trial.
The jury ruled out Fosamax as a cause.
Instead, the jury ruled that Glynn’s femur fracture was consistent with a
traumatic injury
Fosamax, which was approved for sale in the US in 1995, generated sales of up to $3 billion a year until patent protection lapsed in 2008.
Fosamax, its generic equivalent and
other similar bisphosphonate drugs are prescribed to treat osteoporosis. In
2010, a study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research found that
the drug, approved in 1995, could be linked to an increase in femur fractures.
Nationwide Fosamax lawsuits were
categorized into two different federal pretrial case consolidations for efficiency
purposes. Cases involving alleged femur fractures are handled in the U.S.
District Court for the District of New Jersey (MDL-2243). Lawsuits related to
Fosamax’s alleged jaw death side effects are being handled in the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York (MDL-1789).
