A Texas jury dealt a painful blow, finding the drug maker liable for a Vioxx patient’s death and slapping it with $253 million in damages. With about 4,200 more Vioxx lawsuits to go, the verdict was an ominous start for Merck.

A lawsuit filed by the widow of a Florida businessman has been chosen as the first Vioxx case to go to trial among nearly 2,000 cases pending in the federal Vioxx multi-district litigation (MDL).

A lawsuit filed by the widow of a Florida businessman has been chosen as the first Vioxx case to go to trial among nearly 2,000 cases pending in the federal Vioxx multi-district litigation (MDL).

NEW ORLEANS - The first of what could be many federal trials concerning Merck's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx will deal with the fatal heart attack of a 53-year-old Florida man.

Irvin Plunkett v. Merck & Co, Inc., to go to trial among cases pending in the federal Vioxx in New Orleans will begin on November 28, 2005. The announcement was made by Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, who is presiding over the Vioxx Multi-district Litigation (MDL).

A Bullock County woman filed a lawsuit June 3 against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Qualitest Pharmaceuticals of Alabama for allegedly causing her to develop breast cancer by falsely promoting hormone therapy medication.

An Alabama judge delayed a trial of a lawsuit against Merck & Co. over the death of a man who took the drugmaker’s now-withdrawn Vioxx painkiller.

NEW YORK – Merck & co. has asked that the first Vioxx personal injury lawsuit scheduled to come to trial this month be dismissed, saying that a man who died of a heart attack after being prescribed Vioxx never took the drug.

The Vioxx pills that an Alabama widow claims caused her husbands death Sept. 4, 2001, were not on the market until a half year later, attorneys for Merck Pharmaceuticals said Tuesday in asking Clay County Circuit Court to dismiss the wrongful death case as bogus.

One of the most popular in the COX-2 class, Vioxx - used by tens of millions of people worldwide - was pulled off the market last October. This decision came shortly after medical conference where FDA researcher David Graham showed higher doses of Vioxx correlated with a tripled risk of heart attack or sudden cardiac death compared to people who weren't taking any similar drug.