The first product-liability trial over Pfizer Inc.'s painkiller Celebrex has been set for June 6 in an Alabama state court. Rosie Ware, of Barbour County, Ala., is suing the New York drug maker, alleging that Celebrex caused her 2005 stroke.

Merck's got three victories and only one loss under its belt in the ongoing Vioxx litigation battle, but the upcoming cases could get a lot tougher.

A federal jury began considering a plaintiff's claim that Merck & Co. ignored evidence that its blockbuster drug Vioxx caused heart attacks and that the medicine probably caused the death of a 53-year old Florida man.

Merck & Co. rested its defense Thursday in the first federal Vioxx case. Attorneys will give closing arguments Friday morning, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon told jurors.

Using a big black, red and yellow chart labeled "Merck Knew But No Warning" to emphasize his points, a plaintiff's attorney cross-examined a top scientific executive for the drug company.

The husbands of two women killed in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 65 more than three years ago have reached a settlement with a trucking company that employed the driver believed to have started the pileup.

An attorney for a woman whose husband died of a heart attack after taking Vioxx for a month told a jury Monday he will prove that the drug was to blame and that its maker hid the dangers.

Merck & Co. Inc. rushed the painkiller Vioxx to market despite knowing its potential health dangers, an attorney said on Monday in opening arguments of the latest lawsuit.

The next big battle over Vioxx takes place in New Orleans, a city mired in its own conflicts with nature, the government and itself.

The Garza family faces off against Merck this week in a Texas border town, in the fourth lawsuit to blame Vioxx, the market-pulled painkiller, for causing heart attacks.