Merck & Co. has vowed to fight every one of the thousands of personal injury cases filed against it after the Vioxx withdrawal, starting with the case of Brad Rogers, 42, an ambulance dispatcher in Alabama.

Merck was accused of violating a court order by providing documents to the media concerning an upcoming trial over the safety of Vioxx.

A motion was filed today for sanctions against Merck for violating a protective order and disclosing personal and confidential information to the news media related to Cheryl Rogers and her deceased husband, Howard. Mrs. Rogers is the plaintiff in the first Vioxx lawsuit scheduled to go to trial on May 23.

"Merck provided depositions of Mrs. Rogers and Dr. William Clancy, who treated her husband, to local and national press on April 12, in violation of the court's protective order. In fact, one reporter had the documents on this date apparently before it was even filed in court."

The plaintiff at the center of the first trial from pain reliever Vioxx said she's furious that the drug's manufacturer, Merck & Co., is branding her untruthful in court documents filed earlier this month in Alabama.

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.

Next month, a Montgomery law firm is schedualed to be the first in the nation to try a case against Merck Pharmacutical company for a death claimed to be linked to the pain drug Vioxx.

"Merck is thumbing it's nose at the justice system, and trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat by questioning the veracity of Cheryl Rogers whose husband, Howard, died at age 42 as a direct result of taking Vioxx."

More than a month away from going to trial in eastern Alabama over its discontinued painkiller, Vioxx, Merck & Co. has asked a Clay County judge to dismiss the case.

Law firm Beasley Allen, lead counsel for the first Vioxx lawsuit set for May, believes that Pfizer's Bextra, a COX-2 inhibitor, posed a dual danger to thousands of consumers before its withdrawal last week.