The Associated Press, "Vioxx Case Tally Nearly 5,000 and Growing, Lawyers Say"

          The tally of lawsuits against Merck & Co. in state and federal court over its painkiller Vioxx is nearly 5,000 and growing, lawyers said in federal court Thursday, less than a week after the drug maker suffered a stinging defeat in a state court in Texas.
          The implications of the loss in the first of the case to be tried against Merck are still playing out. But at a routine monthly meeting in New Orleans lawyers -- and U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon -- made it clear they expect the number of cases against Merck will grow.
          In federal court alone some 1,800 cases have already been filed and Fallon suggested that number could eventually double, or even triple. Federal cases have been filed all over the country, but have been consolidated here because of Fallon's expertise in dealing with complicated, large-scale court fights.
          Fallon reiterated his straightforward strategy for attacking this mass of litigation. He's asking the lawyers on both sides to pick representative cases from four categories of complainants including, potentially, stroke and short-term users of Vioxx. The first of the plaintiffs has already been chosen: a heart-attack victim from Florida, Richard Irvin Jr., who died in May 2001, one month after he began taking Vioxx for back pain.