San Francisco Chronicle, "Vioxx Judge Reprimands Merck Lawyer"

          The judge hearing a product liability suit against Merck & Co., the manufacturer of painkiller Vioxx, reprimanded the drug maker's lead lawyer Thursday for violating pretrial instructions barring comments about lawyers in front of the jury.
          Threatening to declare a mistrial, Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee said Merck lawyer Diane Sullivan had made repeated negative references about attorneys in her opening statement to jurors Wednesday, despite being told beforehand not to do so.
          "It's simply playing to the bias of jurors ... a certain perception that there are too many lawsuits and that it's causing society problems," Higbee said.
          In Wednesday's opening, Sullivan made reference to plaintiff Frederick "Mike" Humeston being "surrounded by lawyers" and later criticized Humeston's attorneys' interpretation of evidence by saying, "That's not science, that's lawyering, lawyering, lawyering."
          The start of testimony Thursday was delayed by Higbee's criticism and a dispute over whether Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck would be allowed to admit into evidence a key 2005 memo from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee.
          Humeston, a 60-year-old postal worker from Boise, Idaho, alleges Vioxx caused him to suffer a heart attack four years ago. His lawyers told jurors on Wednesday, the first day of testimony, that Merck rushed the product onto the market, ignored evidence of problems with some patients and didn't warn doctors or users that Vioxx could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
          Merck withdrew the popular arthritis and pain treatment from the market in September 2004 after its own research showed Vioxx doubled risk of heart attack and stroke after 18 months' use.