Associated Press, "Two state trials down, first federal trial next up for Merck"

          With Merck & Co. now 1-and-1 in state lawsuits over its Vioxx painkiller, the world's No. 5 drug maker may face higher stakes later this month in the first federal trial of charges that it knowingly rushed a potentially lethal drug to market to pocket billions in profits.
          The federal Vioxx trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 29 in Houston, just 40 miles north of the state court where Texas jurors last August slapped Merck with a $253 million verdict in the first Vioxx trial in the nation. Texas caps on punitive damages will cut that amount to no more than $26.1 million.
          Jere Beasley, lead lawyer for the plaintiff in the first federal trial, said his team was undaunted by the New Jersey verdict. "We will prove our case in Texas and let a jury decide whether or not our client should receive a verdict in her case. What happened in New Jersey -- the home base of Merck -- won't have any effect on us in my opinion," he said.
          Merck faces about 7,000 state and federal lawsuits so far over the drug the company withdrew from the market last year when a study showed it doubled risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. Analysts say Merck could pay billions over Vioxx, through jury verdicts, settlements and the cost of paying its legal team. If Merck loses the first federal battle before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon of New Orleans, who oversees all the federal Vioxx litigation, the company may have to rethink its oft-repeated vow to fight nearly every lawsuit, lawyers said.
          The first federal case centers on the May 2001 death of 53-year-old Richard Irvin Jr. of Florida, who had a fatal heart attack after he took Vioxx for about a month to alleviate back pain. His widow, Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, claims her husband was in "very good health" when he started taking the once-popular painkiller. Merck maintains that clogged arteries, not Vioxx, caused Irvin's death.