Merck Recalls Child Vaccine

An article on cnn.com — Merck recalls kids’ vaccine — discusses Merck’s recall of 1.2 million doses of child Hib vaccine, because of contamination risks and possibility of infection.  The article also summarizes Merck’s status in light of the proposed Vioxx settlement:

While the company took a black eye with its September 2004withdrawal of the painkiller Vioxx due to increased risk of heartattacks and strokes, Merck has been performing well recently. OnTuesday, it gave an upbeat assessment in its annual briefing foranalysts.

Five weeks ago, Merck reached a deal to settle up to50,000 Vioxx lawsuits for $4.85 billion, an amount expected to save thecompany millions in trial costs.

Its stock price has more thanrecovered from its post-Vioxx slump, a two-year-old restructuring planis going well and profits are up. For example, Merck posted a 62percent increase in its third-quarter profit as revenues jumped bydouble digits

BGS