Merck Moves to Strike Plaintiffs' Medical Monitoring Class Allegations

NEW ORLEANS - Merck & Co. Inc. has moved to strike the class allegations in plaintiffs' federal Vioxx MDL medical monitoring master complaint, claiming that legal and factual variations would render individual state class actions, and much less a nationwide class action, unmanageable and unfair. In Re: Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1657 (E.D. La.).

In a Feb. 16 motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Merck asserts that it is not possible to make a uniform determination that all Vioxx users across the country have the same alleged increased risk of cardiovascular …