Merck Statement on Vioxx Proceedings in Ontario, Canada

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., December 7, 2009 – Merck has learned that a justice of the Ontario Superior Court has issued a procedural decision confirming her 2008 decision dismissing Merck's motion for leave to appeal to the Divisional Court from an order certifying a class of individuals in Canada, except Quebec and Saskatchewan, who were prescribed and ingested Vioxx, to proceed with litigation in Ontario. These procedural decisions do not address the merits of the plaintiffs' claims. Merck had asked the Ontario Superior Court justice to reconsider her 2008 decision and grant leave to appeal from the Ontario certification order in light of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal's March 2009 judgment overturning a certification order in that province.

Litigation in Canada continues to be in relatively early stages, and none of the claims have been examined by the courts. When that occurs, Merck believes that the evidence will show that Merck behaved responsibly with Vioxx, from studying the drug in clinical trials involving about 10,000 patients prior to authorization by regulatory authorities, to monitoring the safety of the medicine while it was on the market, to the voluntary withdrawal within one week of learning the new results from the APPROVe study. Merck also believes the evidence will show that it was pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors, and not Vioxx, that caused the claimed conditions.

The company’s legal approach remains the same. Merck believes that each case should be tried separately and will continue to argue that centralized management of individual cases, not a class action, is the preferable procedure for trying each case in a fair and expeditious manner. Each claim depends on a unique set of facts and should be examined individually in court. Heart attacks, for example, are unfortunately very common in the population and caused by many different well established risk factors. Merck retains the right to move for decertification at an appropriate point in the proceedings.

Status of Litigation in Canada
On March 30, 2009, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal granted Merck's appeal and overturned certification of a class of residents of all provinces except Quebec. The Supreme Court of Canada denied plaintiffs leave to appeal on October 22, 2009. On July 28, 2008, the Ontario Superior Court certified a class including residents of all provinces except Quebec and Saskatchewan; and a class proceeding for residents of Quebec was authorized on November 9, 2006. Both class proceedings remain in preliminary stages. Other actions in preliminary stages are pending in various provinces.

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Forward Looking Statement
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The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: the possibility that the expected synergies from the merger of Merck and Schering-Plough will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period, due to, among other things, the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and pending legislation that could affect the pharmaceutical industry; the risk that the businesses will not be integrated successfully; disruption from the merger making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; Merck’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; dependence on the effectiveness of Merck’s patents and other protections for innovative products; the risk of new and changing regulation and health policies in the U.S. and internationally and the exposure to litigation and/or regulatory actions.

Merck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in Merck’s 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Schering-Plough’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2009, the proxy statement filed by Merck on June 25, 2009 and each company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site: www.sec.gov.

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