Attorney General Darrell Mcgraw Announces Expansion Of Vioxx Consumer Refund Program
January 18, 2005 19:42

A group of state including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont announced in December of 2004 that pharmaceutical giant Merck had agreed to significantly alter its consumer refund program for unused Vioxx, the popular prescription pain medication that the company withdrew from global markets earlier this year. The improvements to the consumer refund program are applicable to West Virginia residents and provide greater protections for consumers in all 50 states.

Several Attorneys General became concerned that Merck's refund program contained too many hurdles for consumers to jump before a consumer could receive reimbursement. The Attorneys General contacted Merck and asserted that the refund program could unfairly exclude consumers who might have immediately destroyed Vioxx either on doctors' orders or because they were worried about keeping an unsafe drug in their medicine cabinets.