Jury rejects man’s claim Vioxx caused heart attack

Article in today’s Times-Picayune — Jury rejects man’s claim Vioxx caused heart attack, by Susan Finch:

    A federal court jury Tuesday handed New Jerseypharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc.
    a victory in thelatest of more than 16,000 lawsuits alleging the companyfailed to give
    adequate warning to doctors that Vioxx, apopular painkiller it took off the market in
    2004, posed aheart attack risk.

    After a two-week trial and just over two hours ofdeliberating, jurors rejected the claim
    of Kentucky residentRobert Garry Smith, 57, that his heart attack in February2003 was
    caused by Vioxx, which he’d taken for aboutfour months for arthritis pain.