21 mars, 2007 22:53
Local Pharmacist Sues Drug Company Over Vioxx
First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Tudor Jones loves the outdoors. The 52-year-old has spent 35 years of his life running marathons and cycling thousands of miles. Jones says he can't do that anymore.
"I've got shortness of breath, chest heaviness, dizziness." Jones says it's all because of a little pill called Vioxx.
Jones, a pharmacist, says he first heard about the pain medication in his job. He says about seven years ago, Merck, the company that manufactured Vioxx, called him for his help.
"We went on this tour throughout the state of Florida promoting [Vioxx] and I was given samples for personal use. I turned them down twice, then decided to go ahead and take some."
He says he took Vioxx several times a week for four years to treat arthritis, but then research reports surfaced claiming the drug was not safe.
"I asked what is the truth about this -- what is the truth about the cardiological effects of this drug. [They said] that is just the competition. There is nothing wrong with this drug. It is safe and effective." Jones says he stopped taking the drug when the recall came out in 2004.
A month later, he says his life changed forever. "I got to the top of the stairs and thought I was going to pass out." Jones, then 51-years-old, was rushed to the hospital after tests showed he had massive amounts of blood clots in both of his lungs.
"There were so many clots I couldn't count. I feel like I was gypped because I have taken care of myself," says Jones.
Jones will soon be one of the more than 28,000 Vioxx lawsuits already filed against Merck.
"He was personally defrauded by the company's misconduct and it makes him angry and it makes me angry," says Jones' attorney, Bob Spohrer.
Spohrer says the lawsuit is ready to go. He is waiting to file it until a federal judge in New Orleans decides where some of the other cases are going to trial. Spohrer wants to go to trial in Jacksonville.
These days Jones has to take it easy. He says he lives just one day at a time. "Now I can walk to the mailbox without getting short of breath. That is a great accomplishment even for a guy who could run 26 miles."
Merck says because Jones' lawsuit has not been filed, it cannot address his allegations.
It also says that some of the others who have brought lawsuits against Merck had unique preexisting risk factors.
Merck also says it: "carefully studied Vioxx before and after FDA approval and consistently made the results of those studies available to the FDA and the medical community. Indeed, Merck acted responsibly every step of the way -- from researching Vioxx prior to approval in clinical trials to monitoring the medicine while it was on the market to voluntarily withdrawing the medicine when it did."
