Vioxx Verdict. $229 million to family.

As predicted here Merck was hammered today in Angelton Texas as the Vioxx verdict came in on the Ernst case.

$229 million dollars. One day of Jury deliberations. Attorney Mark Lanier took them apart.

Obviously Merck has already said they will appeal, and no doubt this will be reduced on appeal or negotiated to a more palatable figure, still the outlook for defending these couldn't be worse for Merck at the moment. Their stock has fallen off a cliff this afternoon and the general concencus of those at the trial during closing arguments was that Merck's approach infuriated the jury.

They arrogantly suggested that Mrs. Ernst was driven by guilt and misinformation about the effects of Vioxx and that she was doing this because she had suggested her late husband take the pill, and therefore was looking for some emotional relief for her guilt. The defense had the brass to even tell the jury to help her by finding for Merck, to let her know she didn't kill her husband! Attorney Lanier almost jumped out of his chair to tell the jury to "find big and make the numbers of a size Merck could understand". Clearly they listened to that admonition.

We will have a lot of audio commentary on this over the weekend and will be posting some fascinating analysis of the verdict and the tactics early next week. Make sure you are checking back as we continue to follow this case closely.