Merck & Co., Inc. said at least 94 per cent of eligible US claimants have elected to participate in its $4.85 billion Vioxx settlement and has extended until June 30 the deadline for registered participants to submit paperwork.

The company extended the deadline for two months for claimants with cases filed or tolled by Nov. 9, 2007 wishing to be part of the programme to resolve state and federal myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke (IS) claims filed against the company in the United States. Pfizer formally extended the walk away enrolment deadline date by which it could elect to terminate the resolution programme to June 30; this action automatically extended the enrolment deadline to June 30.

Merck extended the deadlines to allow claimants and their counsel additional time to complete the enrolment process and for the Claims Administrator and the company to continue to verify the completeness and compliance of enrolment materials received so far.

Because of the large number of enrolments received so far, Merck is confident that when enrolments are verified, all 85 per cent thresholds will be met and exceeded. The meeting of the thresholds with enrolment documents in compliance with the Settlement Agreement would obligate Merck to pay $4.85 billion in instalments into the resolution fund. In 2007, the company recorded a pretax charge of $4.85 billion which represents the fixed amount to be paid by the company to settle qualifying claims.

As of March 31, the Claims Administrator reported more than 28,250 eligible MI claimants have initiated enrolment and more than 16,750 eligible IS claimants have initiated enrolment. Of these, more than 5,500 eligible MI and IS claimants alleging death as an injury have initiated enrolment, and more than 27,500 eligible MI and IS claimants alleging more than 12 months of use have initiated enrolment. Each of these numbers appears to represent at least 94.5 per cent of the eligible claims in each category. These numbers do not include an additional 5,500 enrolees whose eligibility has yet to be determined.