The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether shareholders can sue pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. because of the failure of Vioxx. The High Court agreed last month to review Merck’s challenge to a federal appeals court’s reinstatement of a class-action securities lawsuit. Investors had charged Merck with providing misleading information or omitting originally important information about the risks of Vioxx. A U.S. District Judge dismissed the November 2003 lawsuit, ruling that all the Plaintiffs’ claims were time-barred under the statute of limitations. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided to allow the lawsuits and Merck appealed to the Supreme Court. As we all know, Vioxx was pulled from the market because it doubled risks of heart attack, stroke and death. On the day it was pulled, stockholders lost a collective $28 billion.

Source: Associated Press