The potential postponement this week of the first trial against Merck over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx could be unfavourable for the US drugmaker, as plaintiffs' attorneys push a stronger case.

An Alabama judge has rejected defense attorny’s motion to dismiss a Vioxx case in which a state resident claims her husband died as a result of taking the popular painkiller.

An east Alabama judge refused to throw out a wrongful-death lawsuit related to Merck & Co.'s painkiller Vioxx, but he still has not decided whether to postpone the start of the trial.

NEW YORK (AP)- the first slated trial of a wrongful death suit against Merck & Co. over its painkiller Vioxx has been postponed at the urging of a federal judge.

Jere Beasley, founding shareholder at the law firm taking the first Vioxx lawsuit to trial in May, Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C, called upon Merck to join him in asking Judge Rochester to lift a protective order which prohibits the release of protected information regarding the drug's dangers

Giant drug maker Merck & Co. has viewed to fight every one fo the thousands of person 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 yesterday of violating a court order by providing documents to the media concerning an upcoming trial over the safely of Vioxx.

Merck had asked the Court to dismiss the lawsuit, contending that Mr. Rogers, who died of a heart attack after being prescribed Vioxx, never took the drug. Lawyers for Beasley Allen disputed Merck's claims and said that they had evidence that Mr. Rogers took Vioxx before he died.

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.