Motion to postpone Vioxx trial rejected

Yahoo! News is reporting that:

Beleaguered drug maker Merck & Co.’s request to postpone the next trial over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx was turned down Monday by the New Jersey judge presiding over the case.

Superior Court Judge Carol E. Higbee, who is overseeing nearly 2,500 Vioxx product liability cases that have been filed in New Jersey, also rejected several other Merck motions related to the upcoming trial.

Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck, in a motion filed last week, had urged Higbee to postpone the trial’s start for 45 days, citing a “media blitz” after the first Vioxx trial. That ended Aug. 19 with an Angleton, Texas, jury awarding $253.4 million to the widow of Bob Ernst. He died in 2001 after taking Vioxx for eight months. The award is expected to be reduced to about $26 million due to Texas caps on punitive damages.

Set to start Sept. 12 in Atlantic City, the second trial over the drug involves a 60-year-old postal worker and former Marine from Boise, Idaho. Frederick “Mike” Humeston suffered a heart attack, but survived, four years ago shortly after he began taking Vioxx for pain from old war wounds.

Merck is facing about 5,000 lawsuits in all. “The total includes about 150 potential class-action suits, which could include many plaintiffs.”