Trial Date Set for Next New Jersey Vioxx Suit

A judge Thursday set a Jan. 30 trial date for the next New Jersey lawsuit against Merck & Co. over its once-popular painkiller Vioxx.

After a daylong closed-door hearing with lawyers, Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee narrowed the list of potential cases to go to trial on that date to seven. In each, the plaintiffs are New Jersey residents who suffered heart attacks after taking the drug for 18 months or longer. One of the heart attacks was fatal.

More than 3,400 cases blaming Merck for Vioxx-related injuries have been filed in New Jersey and all are consolidated under Higbee. The company faces about 7,000 cases altogether, some of which will be tried in federal court. The first federal trial is slated to begin Nov. 29 in Houston.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys asked Higbee to let them try two cases at once starting Jan. 30, but lawyers for Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck objected and Higbee made no decision, said Louise Pelosi, assistant civil division manager for Atlantic County courts.

Higbee may decide at a Nov. 28 status conference which case will go to trial. On Thursday, she only set the date.

After that, the next case to be heard in New Jersey will go to trial March 27. No plaintiff has been chosen for that trial either.

The 18-month use benchmark is noteworthy because Merck contends that links between the now-withdrawn painkiller and heart attacks and strokes exist only after 18 months of use.

On Nov. 3, a jury cleared Merck of liability in the heart attack suffered by an Idaho postal worker who had been taking the drug for about two months when he was stricken.