The Plaintiff’s certification motion is currently scheduled for June 24-27, 2008 before Justice Cullity of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. At this motion, the Court will be asked to certify the lawsuit (as more particularly described in the Amended Fresh Statement of Claim) as a class action proceeding under Ontario's Class Proceedings Act, 1992. This motion will determine whether this legal proceeding meets the legislative criteria for proceeding as a class action. It is not a ruling on the merits.

This certification motion, which was originally scheduled for October 2007, has been rescheduled twice, both times at the behest of the Defendants Merck Frosst Canada Ltd., Merck Frosst Canada & Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. However, we are hopeful that certification will proceed on June 24, 2008 and that there will be no further delay by the Defendants or otherwise.

We will provide an update regarding the outcome of the certification motion when it becomes available.

PROCEEDINGS IN SASKATCHEWAN

A separate class proceeding in respect of VIOXX has been commenced in Saskatchewan. Originally applicable to only Saskatchewan residents, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench has certified that class proceeding on a national basis so that it applies to residents outside of Saskatchewan as well. However, leave to appeal that decision has been sought before the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and the Queen’s Bench decision may be overturned. We will be appearing before the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on behalf of potential class members in our proceeding and arguing that the Ontario court and our team are best suited to deal with residents outside of Saskatchewan. This position is strongly supported by the decision of Justice Winkler – now the Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal – where he specifically considered whether our team or the Saskatchewan counsel would best represent the interests of class members. Justice Winkler noted that our team has “a vast wealth of experience [and] is comprised of many pre-eminent class action counsel from across Canada.”

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