Judge: Attorneys in Vioxx Trial are not to talk to reporters

NEW ORLEANS -- The judge overseeing the federal Vioxx trial asked attorneys Friday not to talk to reporters. Attorneys for manufacturer Merck & Co. and for Evelyn Plunkett, whose husband died of a heart attack after taking Vioxx for a month, met with U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon for two hours Friday afternoon.
Fallon also imposed an informal gag before the first federal trial, which ended with the verdict hung 8-1 in Merck's favor. It will be retried starting Feb. 6 in New Orleans. A state jury in Texas awarded $253 million in damages, though state law will cut that to no more than $26.1 million. A New Jersey state court absolved Merck. During the federal court deliberations, the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial saying that a study which has been a major focus of both federal and state trials had downplayed the drug's possible dangers. Plunkett's attorneys have said the editorial bolsters their claims that Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck hid the drug's dangers. The company pulled the drug in 2004, after another study found that taking it for at least 18 months doubles the risk of heart attacks.