UD has already noted the cynicism of Penn State appointing the CEO of Merck – a particularly repellent pharma outfit – to head their scandal review committee.
Snigdha Prakash – in a Slate article titled Why is Kenneth Frazier Leading the Investigation at Penn State? – goes into greater detail as to why Penn State, facing significant vulnerability to lawsuits, finds Frazier attractive:
A Penn State alum and Harvard-trained lawyer, Frazier is best known for his phenomenal success in defending a sordid chapter in Merck’s recent past—its years-long silence about the safety problems of the popular painkiller Vioxx.
… Tens of thousands of former Vioxx users sued Merck after it withdrew the drug, alleging Vioxx had caused them to suffer heart attacks and strokes. Frazier, then the company’s general counsel, declared Merck had done nothing wrong and refused to settle. “We’ll fight every case,” he declared, and hired top-flight law firms in several East Coast cities, in the South, in Chicago, and Los Angeles, as well as a prominent New York firm to coordinate the overall strategy. It took three years and $2 billion in legal expenses for Frazier’s hard-nosed tactics to pay off. Merck settled in late 2007 for a relative pittance, resolving some 50,000 Vioxx cases for just under $5 billion. It was a far cry from the $25 billion to $50 billion in liability that analysts had predicted when Merck withdrew the drug.
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UD thanks Carl.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:08AM
Just what PSU needs, actually.