Legal Briefs: Mistrial For Merck; Win For Sanofi; Loss For Boehringer

Judge declares mistrial in Fosamax product liability case: After several days of deliberation, a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in Boles v. Merck, the first Fosamax (alendronate) personal injury suit to go to trial and Judge John Keenan, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, declared a mistrial on Sept. 11. In a release issued after the judge's announcement, Merck said a jury note had been presented to the judge on Sept. 9 by seven of the eight jurors stating that the seven of them agreed there is no evidence or proof that Fosamax caused the plaintiff's injury. Bloomberg reported that one juror submitted a note to the judge stating that she had been threatened and screamed at by the other jurors and a chair had been thrown at her because she did not agree with them. The suit is one of about 780 cases involving 1,158 plaintiffs who claim they suffered osteonecrosis of the jaw from use of Merck's oral bisphosphonate. The next two trials are scheduled to begin in October and January