From NorthJersey.com:

New Jersey will receive $1.8 million as part of the $58 million Merck & Co. agreed to pay as a portion of a multistate settlement of allegations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks.

The agreement, announced Tuesday, also calls for Whitehouse Station-based Merck to submit all new TV commercials for its drugs to the Food and Drug Administration for review.

The civil settlement ends investigations by 29 states and the District of Columbia into Merck’s advertising practices involving Vioxx, said New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram.

Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 after research showed that it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

That triggered thousands of lawsuits against Merck.

A pending $4.85 billion settlement would end the bulk of those personal injury suits.

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