May the people bringing the suit- the man and his wife find peace in knowing that they have set precedent for such cases against Merck for Vioxx.

While the financial liability to Merck from this one case is probably not great enough to eat into its' financial profits in a serious way, The fact that this case was decided for the NJ man and his wife sets Merck up for a potential loss that may be meaningful to the company.

My only hope is that if this DOES hurt merck badly enough where they have to tighten their belts, they do so at the top- by affecting the salaries of the CEO, not the workers (like my friends who work for Glaxo doing drug development). These scientists believe in what they're doing- they're not in it to get rich. Usually the job pays well, but the actual researchers shouldn't be penalized because they were motivated to get additional degrees, obtain knowledge, and these research facilities are dream jobs for some... good pay- a chance to make a difference possibly- creating something much bigger than they are...

And while the researchers should not suffer from any outcome determined by the financial implications of potential multi million dollar lawsuits, there are many other employees who also had NO part in the deception and greed. Unfortunately, this tends to be where some of the personnel cuts occur when a company is hit like this... Included into this category are the other staff- the secretaries, the janitors, the people in Shipping/Handling, the lab techs, the interns, and many others.