Puny Punitives

vioxx
Originally uploaded by dangunderman.

I was reading a little bit about the whole Vioxx/Merck thing that's been going on, you know, the widow of the dude whose death has been tied to his use of Vioxx being awarded $253.5 million. Naturally, it's not just that Vioxx caused the guy's death, but that Merck knew of the dangers and hid them from the public so they could continue to profit off the enormously popular painkiller.

Anyway, one off-handed line in one article mentions that in this case, Merck will only have to pay out $26.1 million, which could be lowered still in the appellate courts, because Texas has a limit set on punitive damages.

I admit that $26.1 million remains a rather large amount of money. And yes, there are many lawsuits worldwide, class action and otherwise, pending against Merck, who may be royally fucked, no matter how low the individual case damages may be.

But Merck should be fucked. They hid that their medicine kills people because it would cost them some cash. And other pharmaceutical companies should look to this case as a warning. Once you start limiting punitive damages (up yours, Texas), companies start calculating risk. "Let's see, we made $80 million in Texas last year. What's one lousy $26.1 million payout? Keep selling, baby!"

God knows these huge companies are given free reign under Bushie's watch, and the recent bill passed making it more difficult get a federal class action suit going is certainly no exception. But Big Pharma must be included in any discussion of corporate reform.

Oh, wait! What discussion? With our short attention spans and singular focus, the war is everything right now. Corporate greed and capitalism run amok has fallen off the radar, which leaves discussing corporate reform about as popular as getting herpes.

Fortunately, GlaxoSmithKline has Valtrex for that.