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Texas Sues Merck to Recover Vioxx Costs

The state of Texas has filed suit against Merck & Co. under the state's Medicaid fraud act to recover funds spent for state Medicaid participants on the recalled arthritis drug Vioxx.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says Texas reimbursed pharmacies for some $56 million in Vioxx costs while the drug was on the market from May 1999 through September 2004, when Merck stopped selling it due to increased reports of heart attacks and strokes.

In a suit filed in the Travis County District Court, Abbott not only requests recovery of the original $56 million reimbursement figure, but also says the state is entitled to an additional award of two times that amount because of Merck's alleged misrepresentation and suppression of evidence.

The attorney general says that were it not for Merck's aggressive promotional campaign for Vioxx and its representation of the drug's safety, the state of Texas would not have relied on such "representations and failures to disclose to its detriment."

The suit charges that even though Merck's internal corporate memos and e-mails show the company knew Vioxx was linked to "serious and significant health hazards" as far back as 1996, it "launched an expensive promotional advertising campaign to convince lay people to request Vioxx from their health care professionals for the treatment of their pain."

Merck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Abbott, Merck intended the "false statements and misrepresentations of material fact" concerning the safety of Vioxx to be used by physicians and Texas officials in securing approval for the drug to be added to the state Medicaid formulary, a list of approved medications. Such actions, the suit alleges, place Merck in violation of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.

Abbott also seeks recovery of interest on the $56 million worth of Vioxx paid for by the state, additional civil penalties, and related fees and expenses associated with filing the suit.