Merck's Waiver of the Walk Away Right as of August 4, 2008

Merck announced on July 17, 2008 that the Enrollment thresholds have been met and that it is waiving its Walk Away Right under Section 11.1.1 of the Settlement Agreement, as of August 4, 2008. As a result, the Enrollment Deadline Date was set as October 30, 2008, pursuant to Section 17.1.26 of the Settlement Agreement. Claimants could continue to Enroll in the Settlement Program until October 30, 2008.

DEADLINE NOTICE

The deadline for those Claimants wishing to Enroll to be considered for an Interim Payment passed on March 31, 2008. If you submitted an Enrollment Form with a list identifying the Claimants to be submitted for Enrollment and submitted a properly and fully completed and executed Release signed by such Claimants by the Interim Payment Deadline, you had until October 30, 2008, to send the Claims Administrator the properly and fully completed and executed Stipulation of Dismissal if the Claimant has a pending suit, Medical Records Authorization Form and Employment Records Authorization Form if seeking Extraordinary Injury Payments, and Certification of Final Enrollment with Claimant Spreadsheet all in the proper format. The deadline for submitting the remaining Enrollment Materials to be considered for an Interim Payment passed on October 30, 2008.

Because Merck announced the waiver of its Walk Away Right as of August 4, 2008, the Enrollment Deadline Date under Section 1.2.2 and Section 17.1.26 of the Settlement Agreement was set as October 30, 2008. This was the final deadline for Enrolling Claimants in the Program. Thus Claimants may Enroll in the Program using the methods described in the Instructions found below, but must have done so on or before October 30, 2008. Claimants who Enrolled and submitted a Release after March 31, 2008, and on or before October 30, 2008, will not be considered for an Interim Payment. Instead, the amount of any compensation to which they are entitled under the Program will be paid in full in a single payment at the time final payments are made. The Certification of Final Enrollment is required of all Primary Counsel to indicate completion of the Enrollment stage for the firm's Vioxx clients. The CFE was due on October 30, 2008.

See the Step-by-Step Enrollment Instructions for further details on all Enrollment requirements.

The 10/30/08 Enrollment Deadline Date has passed. The Parties have not authorized the Claims Administrator to extend that deadline for any reason for any person. Any Claimant who did not Enroll by that Deadline but wants to Enroll can send the Claims Administrator his or her Enrollment Documents and should do so as soon as possible, along with a statement of why they were not sent by 10/30/08. The Claims Administrator will present them to the Parties for their consideration. We cannot predict whether any of them will be accepted as timely.

Status of Enrollment Submissions

You may visit your Vioxx Portal to see what Enrollment Materials the Claims Administrator has received as to each of your Claimants. To access this function, log on to your Vioxx Portal and click on Enrollment on the left side of the screen to be taken to the Enrollment Main Page. On the Enrollment Main Page, select "4. Enrollment Status" to search your list of Claimants to determine whether the Claims Administrator has received a Release, Stipulation, Medical Authorization, or Employment Authorization as to a particular Claimant. The screen will state "Received" if the Claims Administrator has received that particular document as to that Claimant. If it does not state "Received," then the Claims Administrator has not received that document as to that Claimant.

The Claims Administrator also uses this vehicle to convey to you information on whether these Enrollment Documents have been reviewed for completeness and to notify you of any Deficiencies in a reviewed document under the Completeness Criteria agreed upon by the Parties to the Settlement Program, and the action you need to take to cure that Deficiency. That information is posted to your Portal after your submissions have been reviewed by Merck and the Claims Administrator. If a deficiency is found in one of your submissions for a Claimant, we post notice of that assessment on this section of your Portal, including the action required to correct the problem and when the cure is due. If you then submit a timely cure, the Claimant will be considered to be Enrolled based upon the date of your original submission of that document.

The Parties adopted a final deadline of March 6, 2009, to submit materials to cure all Enrollment Deficiencies. This deadline has passed. If you failed to act by then or you submitted attempted cure materials by that date but now receive a notice that a document still has a Deficiency, you should try to cure it by sending us whatever Cure Action is required immediately. Estate-related Deficiencies (R-30, R-31, R-37 and R-38) can still be cured if the Claimant complied with CAP 2008-1 by March 6, 2009. For all other types of Deficiencies, the Claims Administrator will review with the Parties whether your cure materials will be accepted at this time, but you should get them in as soon as possible.

The Parties intend to file Motions with Judge Fallon as to any claimant who has not cured or submitted materials attempting to cure any of these deficiencies by the March 6, 2009 deadline. These Motions will ask the Court to enter orders directing these claimants or their counsel to appear and show cause as to why the Enrollment Deficiencies have not been corrected by that time and why, in the absence of good and convincing reasons, the claims should not be dismissed with prejudice, and/or otherwise extinguished, for failure to comply with the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement.