For the settlement to take effect, how many plaintiffs would have to agree to drop their lawsuit? If 85% of the plaintiffs agree to accept the settlement and the remaining go to trial, what is Merck’s total payout if these cases are won at the rate at which plaintiffs won the first 17 cases?

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Deal or No Deal-For Real Merck & Co., maker of the painkiller Vioxx, announced that it would pay $4.85 billion to settle 26,600 lawsuits filed by 47,000 plaintiffs, who claimed that the drug had harmed users. For the settlement to take effect, 85 percent of the plaintiffs would have to agree to drop their cases. The company claimed that it had won 12 of its first 17 cases .... The jury award in its first lost case was $253 million.... Vioxx was pulled from the market three years ago.