Merck Amp

Merck & Co. stopped development of an experimental pill for chronic pain, the latest setback in its bid to replace the recalled painkiller Vioxx. The drug, MK-6721, "does not demonstrate the ideal pharmaceutical characteristics considered necessary to advance the compound further in development," Merck's partner on the pill, closely held Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement. Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck declined to comment. The company is trying to recoup some of the $2.

In a major legal victory for Merck & Co. in its massive Vioxx litigation, New Jersey's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a potential class-action lawsuit that could have cost the drug maker as much as $18 billion. New Jersey's highest court, reversing two lower-court decisions, ruled that a nationwide class-action suit was not appropriate.

New York city and state sued Merck & Co. on Monday, accusing the drug maker of defrauding Medicaid and other government insurance programs by hiding the risks of heart problems associated with its pain medication Vioxx. The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, said the state's Medicaid and Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage programs had paid more than $100 million for Vioxx prescriptions since the drug went on the market in 1999.

In a disappointing setback, a promising experimental AIDS vaccine failed to work in a large international test, leading the developer to halt the study. Merck & Co. said Friday that it was ending enrollment and vaccination of volunteers in the study, which was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health. It was a high-profile failure in the daunting quest to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS. Merck's vaccine was the furthest along.