Merck Exits Suits Alleging Shingles Vaccine Caused Shingles

Merck & Co. won dismissal of more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging its Zostavax vaccine caused shingles because the plaintiffs failed to produce required documentation that their shots caused their disease.

The plaintiffs failed to rule out that their disease was simply the reactivated shingles (wild-type) virus already in their bodies because of having contracted chickenpox earlier in their lives, the court said.

The cases are combined in a multidistrict proceeding before Judge Harvey Bartle III of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Bartle previously granted summary judgment for Merck in five test cases for the same ...