Associated Press, "Lawyer Tells 3rd Vioxx Trial That a Month's Use Was Fatal"

          A lawyer representing a widow who contends that her husband's death was caused by Vioxx, the arthritis pain reliever made by Merck, argued Tuesday in a federal product liability suit here that taking the medicine for a month was enough to cause the heart attack that killed her husband.
          But Merck countered in opening statements that extensive studies made before the drug was introduced in 1999 showed no evidence that its short-term use caused heart attacks, and that heart disease, not Vioxx, led to the man's death.
          The trial is the third so far over Vioxx's safety. Merck lost a state trial in South Texas in August, but won a case in a New Jersey state court early this month. More than 7,000 state and federal lawsuits have been filed over Vioxx.
          Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a long-term study showed that the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks or strokes if taken for 18 months or longer. More than 20 million Americans had used Vioxx.
          The current case was filed by Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, whose husband, Richard Irvin Jr., died in May 2001 at 53. It is being heard by Judge Eldon E. Fallon of United States District Court in New Orleans. The trial was moved to Houston because of hurricane damage in New Orleans.
          Jurors will be asked to decide whether Vioxx contributed to the heart attack of Mr. Irvin, manager at a wholesale seafood distributorship in St. Augustine, Fla. Mr. Irvin, who had been taking the drug for back pain, was found dead at his desk.