San Francisco Chronicle, "Doctor: Vioxx Was Factor in Man's Death"

          A pathologist testifying at the first federal trial over Merck & Co.'s former blockbuster drug Vioxx said he believed the pain killer helped cause a blood clot that killed a Florida man.
          "It is my opinion that it contributed to his death," Dr. Colin M. Bloor told jurors Wednesday on the second day of the trial that centers on whether Vioxx caused Richard "Dicky" Irvin's fatal heart attack in May 2001. The 53-year old manager of a seafood distributor had been taking Vioxx for about a month to alleviate back pain when his colleagues found him dead at his desk.
          A lawyer for Merck argued that Bloor, professor emeritus for pathology at the University of California-San Diego, was not an expert on Vioxx and had not read Food and Drug Administration reports on the painkiller or what Merck's experts have written about the drug.
          The case pits Irvin's widow, Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, against Merck, which has scored a loss in Texas and a win in its home turf of New Jersey in the first two state-level Vioxx cases. Merck faces about 7,000 state and federal lawsuits, and analysts have estimated its liability could reach $50 billion.
          Plunkett alleges that Vioxx - which inhibits an enzyme that promotes inflammation and thins the blood - led to the clot formation.
          Irvin's autopsy showed moderate to severe clogged arteries and indications that a blood clot in a major coronary artery caused an irregular heartbeat and death.
          Bloor, a witness for the plaintiff, testified that a blood clot caused Irvin's heart attack. Blood clots are clumps in vessels or the heart that form from the coagulation of blood.
          Merck has claimed the clot formed when plaque, or a fatty deposit in the wall of an artery, ruptured with no help from Vioxx. But Bloor said there was no evidence the plaque ruptured and that if that had happened, the blood clot would have been attached to the artery wall or the fatty deposit. The clot wasn't connected to the walls or plaque.
          Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a long-term study showed the drug doubled risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. By then, more than 20 million Americans had used Vioxx.