Second Chance was the bad actor, not Toyobo. There was no conspiracy. Second Chance deceived Toyobo, the law enforcement community, and investigating authorities including the Department of Justice.
We'll look at a relatively small subset of cases. But we have no intention of entering into a global settlement of any kind.
It is apparent that Toyobo was duped by Second Chance. We were shocked by the level of Second Chance's deception when their behavior was finally uncovered because of documents that surfaced in litigation and through investigation.
The new filings are not unexpected and do not change our strategy. Right now we are concentrating on defending each and every case we face.
We have been waiting anxiously to file our appeal, but we have to wait until the judge formally enters the verdict. Usually that is done fairly quickly after a verdict is reached.
We intend to try these cases one by one and that is exactly what we are doing.
Cases we'll be looking at concern ingestion of Vioxx for 18 months or more by patients with limited heart risk factors.
We could decide to settle others. We are not entertaining the notion of a global settlement.
Merck's actions were appropriate from beginning to end.
Merck didn't ask for any delays and is ready to defend any of these cases whenever they are scheduled.
