Stewart Grossberg soldiers into a Los Angeles courthouse this week as the latest combatant in a drug litigation war that's made the pharmaceutical industry the nation's No. 1 target of product liability lawsuits.
Grossberg, a retired Northridge construction manager, blames Merck & Co.'s pain reliever Vioxx for a heart attack he suffered in 2001. He is the first California plaintiff among more than 23,500 nationwide to have his suit against Merck go to trial. Opening arguments are set for today.
The Vioxx suits are part of an explosion in litigation as consumers seek damages for alleged harmful side effects from an array of drugs that critics say were aggressively sold without sufficient testing or warning.
More than 71,000 drug lawsuits have been filed in federal courts since 2001 and untold others in state courts. Such suits now account for more than a third of all product liability filings in federal courts, outnumbering asbestos, tobacco and auto safety claims by a widening margin since 2002, according to a new analysis conducted by legal research firm Thomson West for the Los Angeles Times.
The suits, which expose drug firms to billions of dollars in potential damages, could change how drugs are made and marketed. The litigation boom also is prompting calls for more tort reform and major regulatory changes aimed at improving patient safety.
Drug companies and business advocates contend that the industry is being unfairly targeted. Lay jurors, ill-equipped to parse good science from bad, cannot properly decide highly technical cases, they say. And, they argue, many of the suits are baseless anyway, drummed up by trial lawyers trying to cash in on drug companies' deep pockets.
"It's like a moth to the flame with trial lawyers," said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a pro-business group critical of much of the litigation. "Once one gets success in one area, then they flock to it."
The suits, however, appear to have encouraged many consumers to make more informed decisions. Traffic on clinical trial websites is picking up, and doctors report patients are coming in armed with data and sophisticated questions.
"They are thinking for themselves, and they are not accepting their physicians' recommendations lock, stock and barrel," said David Webster, a health industry consultant.
