Barbour County could be back in the national tort spotlight this summer when plaintiff lawyer Jere Beasley and his firm take pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to court over its arthritis drug Celebrex.

A Celebrex lawsuit has been set for trial on June 6, 2006 for a woman who suffered a stroke at age 53, caused by taking the pain relieving drug, Celebrex. The trial will take place in the Circuit Court of Barbour County in Alabama. It will most likely be the first Celebrex case to be tried in the country.

The federal Vioxx trial in Houston was ruled a mistrial, leaving Merck, the maker of the painkiller, having to try the case again while fending off thousands of other suits claiming that the drug causes heart attacks.

HOUSTON - Jurors in the first federal trial over Vioxx were to resume deliberating about whether Merck & Co. was negligent in designing and marketing the once-popular painkiller and if it failed to warn about the drug's risks.

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Merck & Co. put profits ahead of consumers' safety by hiding heart risks of its Vioxx painkiller, a lawyer told a jury in closing arguments of the third trial of a lawsuit filed over the drug.

Telling jurors their decision will have “far-reaching consequences for how drug companies conduct their business,” the attorney for a woman who believes her husband’s short-term use of Vioxx caused his death asked the panel to send Merck a message.

The jury in the first federal case against drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc.’s Vioxx adjourned on Thursday after deliberating for about two hours over whether the painkiller contributed to a Florida man’s death.

HOUSTON- jurors deliberated about two hours Thursday without reaching a verdict in the first trial stemming from a federal lawsuit against Merck& Co. over its once-popular painkiller Vioxx.

Jurors deliberated about two hours Thursday without reaching a verdict in the first trial stemming from a federal lawsuit against Merck & Co. over its once-popular painkiller Vioxx.

A Merck executive denied today she tried to pressure one of the nation’s top cardiologists into not publishing an article in a highly respected medical journal raising concerns that Vioxx could cause heart attacks and strokes.