First Vioxx Trial Winding Down

Jurors in First Vioxx Trial Get Day Off So Lawyers Can Prepare to Wind Down Testimony

By KRISTEN HAYS
The Associated Press

ANGLETON, Texas Aug 15, 2005 — Jurors hearing evidence in the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial got a day off Monday so lawyers could prepare to wind down testimony and present closing arguments by midweek.

Lawyers on both sides said they expected to make their final arguments Wednesday, after plaintiff's lawyer Mark Lanier presents two rebuttal witnesses Tuesday. Both legal teams worked Monday to hash out issues jurors will consider in reaching a verdict.

Jonathan Skidmore, one of the lawyers for Vioxx-maker Merck & Co., said the company expected to rest its case before Lanier presents his witnesses Tuesday, barring anything unforeseen.

Fifteen witnesses have testified, some by videotaped deposition, since testimony began July 14. Of those, two-thirds testified for the plaintiff, Carol Ernst, including Ernst herself.

She alleges Vioxx caused the sudden death of her husband, Robert Ernst, in May 2001 after the Wal-Mart produce manager and marathon runner had taken the drug for eight months to alleviate pain in his hands.

Merck took Vioxx off the market in September 2004 when a study showed it could double the risk of heart attack or stroke if taken for 18 months or longer. Whether it caused Ernst's death will be a key question for the seven-man, five-woman jury.

Merck has repeatedly pointed to Ernst's autopsy report, which attributes his death to an arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat secondary to clogged arteries. The company says no studies link Vioxx to arrhythmia, so the drug couldn't have caused his death.

Carol Ernst alleges a Vioxx-induced heart attack is to blame but her husband died too fast for his heart to show damage.

The pathologist who performed the autopsy corroborated that view, saying a heart attack more than likely caused Ernst's fatal arrhythmia. She didn't say Vioxx was responsible, noting she knew little about the drug in 2001, but three other plaintiff's experts said Vioxx triggered Ernst's death.

Two other cardiology and pathology experts testified on Merck's behalf that Ernst died from clogged arteries one of which had up to 75 percent blockage. They said the autopsy report was valid, but that the pathologist's theory of a heart attack causing the arrhythmia was not.