Why Levaquin Mass Tort Ruling May Favor J&J
New Jersey Supreme Court’s consolidation of cases regarding the antibiotic Levaquin into a mass tort in Atlantic County Superior Court at first looks like bad news for Johnson & Johnson. After all, Judge Carol Higbee’s courthouse-by-the-casinos is where Merck was eventually forced into a $4.85 billion settlement of its Vioxx cases.
But there’s reason to believe that J&J’s lawyers may have pumped their fists in the air upon hearing of the decision.
First, let’s acknowledge that the Levaquin cases — which claim Levaquin caused Achilles’ tendon ruptures and tendonitis — are completely different from the Vioxx cases. Putting that aside, now ask whether the Vioxx outcome was really all that bad for Merck. It wasn’t. Merck had faced $20 billion in potential Vioxx liability, but:
Of the 20 cases tried … 15 ended in defense verdicts or hung juries. Merck’s success in the courtroom was a stick that it used in negotiations with the plaintiffs.
J&J may look at that result — a settlement coming in at about 25 percent of the worst-case scenario — as a promising start.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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