"Our firm has been watching the situation unfold over the past 4 years. In light of the recent findings which undeniably link Celebrex to greater heart-attack risks, it is time for Pfizer to act responsibly and pull the drug from the market," said Mr. Methvin at a recent press conference.

Pfizer is betting that the medical community and consumers will ultimately decide theres still a valid need for a Cox-2 inhibitor, the class of painkillers that includes Celebrex.

When the pharmaceutical company Merck pulled painkiller Vioxx off the market after a study linked it to heart attacks and strokes, lawsuits against the drug maker were already under way across the country.

Merck & co.’s internal investigation of the withdrawal of its Vioxx painkiller will take months to complete and won’t hide any facts, said John Martin Jr., a retired federal judge hired to conduct the probe.

Attorneys representing 39 U.S. law firms met at a New Orleans restaurant and chose two lawyers-one of them from Alabama-to lead federal lawsuits targeting Merck & Co.’s Vioxx painkiller.

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley said he wants to find out why the Food and Drug Administration didn’t pursue safety concerns about Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx, the biggest drug ever recalled.

At least five medications now sold to consumers pose such risks that their sale should be limited or stopped, said a government drug reviewer who raised safety questions earlier about the arthritis drug Vioxx.

Congress is looking into whether the Food and Drug Administration shirked its duty by ignoring safety concerns about Vioxx raised by its own reviewers and outside scientists.

The American public is "virtually defenseless" if another medication such as Vioxx proves to be unsafe after it is approved for sale, a government drug safety reviewer told a congressional committee Thursday.

When Roy Vagelos stepped down 10 years ago as Merck's chief executive the company had, in his words, "become the largest pharmaceutical company in the world based on an unprecedented flow of important new products".