Learned Intermediary Doctrine Not Basis for Removal, Judge Says

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A federal judge remanded a woman's Vioxx action after finding that Merck & Co. Inc.'s invocation of the learned intermediary doctrine to show fraudulent joinder of a non-diverse pharmacy was merely an attack on the merits of the plaintiff's claims rather than an assertion of proper jurisdiction. Brooks v. Merck & Co. Inc., et al., No. 06-371 (S.D. Ill.).

In a July 31 order, Chief Judge G. Patrick Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois said that the learned intermediary doctrine in this case applies exactly the same way as …