Judge Higbee's rulings, which were upheld by New Jersey's intermediate appellate court in March 2006, had spooked many New Jersey-based companies — particularly the many pharmaceutical companies there, like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Wyeth (WYE), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), and Bradley Pharmaceuticals (BDY) — since they exposed all of them to the prospect of defending nationwide consumer class actions. Now it won't happen. In a 5-0 per curiam decision (meaning no judge admits to being the author), the court decided that New Jersey's Consumer Fraud Act requires much more individualized proof of "ascertainable loss" to each class member than the plaintiffs had planned to prove. "Plaintiff does not suggest that each of these proposed class members," the court wrote, "receiving the same information from defendant, reacted in a uniform or even similar manner. Rather. .. each third party payor. .. made individualized decisions concerning the benefits that would be available to its members for whom Vioxx was prescribed." It specifically rejected the plaintiffs' streamlined proposal for proving damages.