Hutton & Hutton Seek Reimbursements For Kansans From Makers Of Vytorin ®
On January 14, 2008, the pharmaceutical giants of Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp., which together manufacture, market and sell Vytorin ® , finally released the results of a study regarding how well Vytorin ® works to lower total cholesterol and reduce clogged arteries. The ENHANCE study, completed in April 2006, established that the very-expensive name-brand Vytorin ® worked no better at lowering total cholesterol than high-doses of its lower-priced generic ingredient, simvastatin, and actually accelerated placque build-up in the arteries, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Vytorin ® is a combination of Zocor ® (simvastatin) and Zetia ® (ezetimibe). Merck got FDA approval for Zocor ® in 1991. Schering-Plough got FDA approval for Zetia ® in 2002. In 2002 Merck and Schering-Plough, together, initiated the ENHANCE study to determine how Vytorin ® reduced cholesterol and plaque. In 2004, however, Merck/Schering-Plough got FDA approval for Vytorin ® , two years before the ENHANCE study ended in April 2006 with the negative results on Vytorin ® ’s effectiveness. Two months later, in June 2006, Merck’s patent on Zocor ® was set to expire, opening the door for sales of the generic simvastatin and threatening to undermine significantly Merck’s Zocor ® sales that reached $4.4 Billion in 2005.
Financially motivated, Merck/Schering-Plough withheld the ENHANCE study’s negative results. From April 2006 until today, Merck/Schering-Plough flooded TV, magazines and newspapers with ads for Vytorin ® to fight the two sources of cholesterol, “food and family.” As a result, Vytorin ® sales, at roughly $3/pill, exceed $5 Billion. The generic version of Zocor ® , simvastatin, sells for roughly $1/pill and is safer and just as effective. In December 2007 and January 2008, Congress pressured the pharmaceutical giants to release the results from the ENHANCE study and explain their behavior.
On January 23, 2008, Hutton & Hutton filed a consumer protection case for all Kansas residents who purchase or have purchased Vytorin for their personal use. The case seeks to recover the damages resulting from Merck/Schering-Plough’s efforts to preserve their unconscionable profits at the expense of Kansans who suffer high cholesterol and clogged arteries, major factors for heart disease and/or stroke.
Hutton & Hutton Wins $982,143 Jury Verdict
A Sedgwick County jury awarded $982,143 to the family of James “Jeff” Duncan, a 38 year old Wichita man who on February 28, 2004, went to the West Wichita Family Physicians, P.A.’s minor emergency office (“WWMEO”) complaining of significant shortness of breath on exertion. No offer of settlement was ever made by the defendant physician.
Jeff reported to the physician that recently he was unable to walk across the room without being out of breath. Jeff had an x-ray, and the defendant physician, Robyn Hartvickson, M.D., diagnosed pneumonia and sent Jeff home with a prescription of antibiotics. The next morning Jeff collapsed at home and could not be resuscitated. The autopsy confirmed that Jeff died from a blood clot in the lung called a pulmonary embolus.
The Duncan family contended that Jeff Duncan should have been referred or transferred to a full service emergency room from the minor emergency office so that he could have been fully worked up. Plaintiffs contended that Jeff’s presentation of symptoms required consideration of a possible diagnosis of pulmonary embolus and that a reasonable and prudent physician was obligated to be suspicious enough of Jeff’s shortness of breath complaints to transfer him to a full service emergency department.
Defendant, on the other hand, contended that the patient had pneumonia and any consideration of the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was not warranted.
The trial started on November 13, 2007, and the jury began deliberations on November 29, 2007, and reached a verdict in favor of the Duncan family on December 4, 2007. The jury awarded $982, 143.00 for past and future loss of income.
The case was tried by Mark Hutton and Darin Hayes of Hutton and Hutton, L.L.C. representing the Duncan family.
Mark and Andy Hutton Selected as 2007 Super Lawyers
For the third year in a row, Mark Hutton has been selected as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers for Kansas and Missouri. His brother and partner, Andy Hutton, has also been selected as one of Kansas' and Missouri's 2007 Super Lawyers. Super Lawyers are selected by their peers and each year lawyers are asked to nominate the best attorneys they have personally observed in action. Just five percent of the lawyers in Kansas and Missouri are named Super Lawyers. The staff at Hutton & Hutton continues to be proud of their Super Lawyers -- Mark and Andy Hutton. Mark and Andy Hutton have also been named as Best Lawyers in America for the year 2007.
Mark and Andy Hutton Selected as 2007 Best Lawyers
For the 10th year in a row, Mark Hutton has been selected as a 2007 Best Lawyer of America. Andy Hutton has also been selected as a 2007 Best Lawyer of America. Best Lawyers compiles lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2007), is based on more than two million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. The lawyers and staff of Hutton & Hutton are proud of its Best Lawyers.
Hutton & Hutton Helps Victims of BTK Strangler
Hutton & Hutton is providing legal services to victims of the BTK Strangler by ensuring that convicted killer Dennis Rader does not profit from the sale of personal items he took from his victims. On Friday, August 26, 2005, District Judge Timothy Lahey ordered the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department to inventory the property seized from Rader at his arrest and then hold it for release to the victims’ families. To read more, click here.
Hutton & Hutton Lawyer Sings and Speaks Out
H&H lawyer, Debs McIlhenny, continues her speaking and singing schedule, including choral work in Verdi’s Requiem and in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Requiem with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra Chorus, patriotic pieces at the March 2006 Naturalization Ceremonies, the National Anthem, both at several Veterans’ Day events and with other Wichita Bar members at the Bar Association’s Law Day celebration.
As an increasingly in-demand public speaker, in 2006 Debs has opined on the history and societal value of The National Anthem to the Wichita Retired Businessman’s and Professional’s Group, Clearwater (KS) Lyon’s Club, High Twelve International (Wichita, KS, Chapter), Alexander Garrett VFW Post 7253 (Derby, KS), Wit and Wisdom (Wichita, KS, Junior Service League sustainers), Clearwater (KS) High School, American Legion Post 95 (Peabody, KS), Pearl Harbor Survivors Association (Wichita, KS), and Pachyderm Club (Wichita, KS). She explained the “Stuff of Citizenship” to over 140 new citizens during the July 2006 Naturalization Ceremony in Wichita. Debs instructed the Retired Executives of Fiatt and Hesston Corporations (Newton, KS) and the Retired Military Officers Association (Valdosta, GA) on the nature and relevance of the National Guard in today’s Total Force military structure. For Law Day, she taught fifth-graders at Mueller Elementary (Wichita, KS) about the government, generally, and the Constitution, specifically. And on Memorial Day she delivered the keynote address on the meaning, manifestation, and price of "honor" in Derby, Kansas.
Elizabeth "Liz" Dudley, R.N., J.D. Appointed to National Bextra/Celebrex Plaintiffs' Committees.
On September 6, 2005, all of the individual lawsuits filed in federal court involving Pfizer's Cox-2 inhibitors (Bextra or Celebrex) causing various personal injuries were consolidated for discovery purposes in front of the Honorable Charles R. Breyer in the Northern District of California, San Francisco. The Hutton firm, with Mark Hutton as lead counsel, and Liz Dudley, have already filed many cases against both Merck (regarding Vioxx cardiovascular injuries) and Pfizer (Bextra/Celebrex-induced cardiovascular and Stevens-Johnson skin injuries). As a result, the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for the Bextra/Celebrex Mass Tort Litigation have appointed Liz Dudley to the Science & Expert Committee and the Discovery Committee. The plaintiffs' committees are currently reviewing documents, contacting various scientific and medical experts, and preparing to take depositions of Pfizer's key witnesses. The committees plan to have a dynamite generic trial package for other plaintiffs' attorneys to use when the cases are transferred back to their original jurisdictions for trials. Additionally, a few select trials will be held by the Honorable Judge Breyer in California sometime in 2007. Bextra was withdrawn from the market on April 7, 2005. However, Celebrex remains on the market.
Hutton & Hutton Lawyer Speaks at KTLA Seminar
Hutton & Hutton attorney, Elizabeth "Liz" Dudley recently spoke at the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association's "Advance Trial Skills Seminar." Ms. Dudley's presentation was titled "Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra: An Overview of the Litigation." Ms. Dudley discussed the scientific development of the Cox-2 drugs, mechanisms of action, injuries reported, Merck's and Pfizer's liability, and the status of the litigation.
Hutton & Hutton Success in Representing Brain-Damaged Child
Gabriel Peters was just 2 years old when he and his father, Tim Peters, attended a "Monster Truck Rally" at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson, Kansas. Thousands of others attended this event which featured large trucks racing, crushing, and destroying other vehicles. The producers, Checkered Flag Productions and the Kansas State Fair, provided beer to the spectators who got "stirred up" watching the event. After the event, the producers sent the spectators on their way without any traffic control or security. Thousands of pedestrians and vehicles flooded the streets of Hutchinson around the fairgrounds. An unknown driver, who likely attended the event, peeled out of Parking Lot C onto Plum Street directly in front of another vehicle. The driver of the second vehicle, distracted by the near collision with the squealing truck, then struck Tim Peters who was carrying sleeping Gabriel in his arms. Gabriel was thrown from his father's arms and struck his head on the concrete curb. Gabriel, now 7 years old, has severe brain damage and is completely dependent on others for every aspect of his care.
H&H filed a lawsuit against the producers and the City of Hutchinson, Kansas for their failure to take any action to protect the "Monster Truck Rally" spectators after the event. (A copy of the lawsuit is available by clicking here.) The defendants moved to dismiss the case claiming that they owed no duty to their customers and that the Kansas Tort Claims Act provided immunity to them. Hutton & Hutton
opposed the motion showing the Reno County Court that the defendants did have a duty to provide reasonable care by providing minimal traffic control and security and that they were not immune from responsibility for these terrible injuries. (A copy of the response brief is available by clicking here.) The court adopted H&H's position and denied the motions for summary judgment. (The court's order is available by clicking here.)
The Court held: "As the possessors of land upon which a public activity was conducted by invitation, the Fair and the City owed a duty of care to the Plaintiffs. Due to the contract between the Fair and Checkered Flag There existed a joint venture. They each had a common purpose and an equal right of control. ... All of the defendants owed the Plaintiffs a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances." Court's Op. at 13-14. "We anticipate that the case will be set for trial by a jury in the near future," reports H&H lawyer Derek Casey.
Hutton & Hutton represents individuals and their children who have suffered terrible injuries due to other's wrongful acts. If you have any questions about this case or similar cases and situations, please do not hesitate to contact us.
$3.997 Million Dollar Verdict
A jury in Sedgwick County state court awarded $3.997 million dollars to the family of Mike McCulley, who died as a result of a 9 month delay in diagnosing his pancreatic cancer. The defendant, a local radiologist, never made an offer to settle the case. The jury’s verdict was unanimous.
< Back |
