Pharma in Focus – Vioxx case highlights class action difficulties - Toby Biddle

The issue of reforming class actions for pharmaceutical claims is highlighted in this opinion piece by Partner Toby Biddle on the Vioxx litigation.

This article was originally published by Pharma In Focus and is reproduced with permission.

Vioxx case highlights class action difficulties

A decade of litigation over MSD's Vioxx (rofecoxib) may promptreform around using class actions to prosecute
pharmaceutical product liability cases, writes Norton Rose Fulbright partner Toby Biddle.

On 26 February 2015, Justice Jessup of the Australian Federal Court approved a settlement which brought to end the long-running representative (class) action brought on behalf of consumers of the arthritis drug, Vioxx. The settlement approval follows an earlier judgment of Justice Jessup in 2013, in which he had refused to approve a proposed settlement.