Merck & Co., Inc. Starts a New Trial Over Fosamax Damage

Merck & Co. (MRK) is fighting a woman’s claim that its osteoporosis drug Fosamax weakened her femur, causing her leg to break when she fell in her driveway, less than a month after the first such trial ended prematurely. A three-week jury trial starting today before U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano in Trenton, New Jersey, will involve medical experts on both sides of the dispute over the cause of Bernadette Glynn’s injury in April 2009. Merck claimed that Glynn, 58, tripped over a chainsaw in her garage and that the fracture is typical of women with osteoporosis. It’s the second thighbone-fracture case against Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based Merck to reach a jury. The earlier trial, in state court in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was called off after plaintiff Christina Su suffered a “sudden illness” that was unrelated to her use of Fosamax, Merck said in a March 18 statement on its website. Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, is accused in more than 3,300 lawsuits of ignoring signs that extended use of bisphosphonates such as Fosamax caused femurs to deteriorate in some patients.

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