The fourth Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. will be held this month in a rural Texas court and a retrial of the federal case that ended in a hung jury will be held in February in New Orleans.

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) -The first federal trial against Merck & Co and its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, which ended in a mistrial earlier this week, will be retried on February 6 in New Orleans, representatives of both sides said on Friday.

Round Two of the nation's first federal trial challenging safety of Merck & Co.'s drug Vioxx will be Feb. 6, 2006 in New Orleans.

Montgomery lawyer Jere Beasley has to be smiling this week, and it's not necessarily because a Houston, Texas jury deadlocked, causing a mistrial in the first federal court trial against Merck.

A mistrial in the nation's first federal Vioxx trial - which ended when a lone juror held out for the plaintiffs – spells trouble for drug giant Merck, several legal analysts said Monday.

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.

The nation's first federal Vioxx trial ended yesterday with a hung jury, which couldn't decide whether the painkiller caused a Florida man's fatal heart attack.

The nation's first federal Vioxx trial ended with a hung jury, but the judge said the case, involving the 2001 death of a Florida man who took the once-popular painkiller for a month, will be retried.

A federal judge declared a mistrial in the nation's first federal Vioxx trial after a Southern District of Texas jury was unable to decide on a verdict.

Merck, faced the prospect of a retrial in the first claim in the federal court over Vioxx, the painkiller withdrawn from sale 15 months ago because of safety fears.