Merck -- worst behind it? Vioxx problems lingering?
January 25, 2005 12:24

http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/25/news/fortune500/merckearnings/index.htm
Drugmaker posts lowest profits in 5 years but stock rallies as investors bet better days are coming.

Merck added $604 million in the fourth quarter to the $71 million it had previously set aside to cover litigation related to Vioxx, the company said Tuesday. Merck officials also said they believe that losses related to the drug are behind it, news that ignited a rally in the drugmakers' beaten-up stock.

Merck & Co.'s arthritis drug Vioxx may have caused as many as 140,000 excess cases of serious coronary heart disease in the U.S. by the time it was withdrawn from the market in September, an FDA official and several fellow scientists conclude in a study... (Read this Vioxx Article)