A Vanderbilt University Law School professor says today’s 5-billion dollar Vioxx settlement was a good strategy for the drug’s manufacturer, Merck.

Vioxx is an anti-inflammatory that Merck pulled from the market in 2004 after concerns it elevated patients’ risk of heart problems.

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Instead of settling the 27-thousand cases up front, Merck chose to try and litigate each one. Professor Richard Nagareda says doing about twenty cases as test runs allowed both sides to have more information to better gage their positions.

“They had a much better idea of the difficulties in proving these sorts of cases and how much money would be awarded in the event that the plaintiff prevailed and that gives them valuable information for designing the deal today.”

The 4-point-85 billion dollars of settlement money will be paid into a fund, and claims will be evaluated individually. Merck doesn’t have to admit fault. But Nagareda says the hefty settlement sum, one of the largest ever, means Merck and other companies are likely to think twice about their products. The company has spent nearly 2-billion dollars in legal fees.