Judge Finds Allegations Against Doctors, Research Clinic Insufficient

HOUSTON - A federal judge refused to remand a wrongful death suit against Vioxx manufacturer Merck and three Texas defendants after finding the in-state defendants were fraudulently joined. Hopson v. Merck & Co. Inc. 03-5686 (S.D. Texas).

In a one-page order filed April 28, U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore concurred with the manufacturer's argument that plaintiff Joe Hopson failed to sufficiently plead facts supporting claims against the prescribing physician, the physician in charge of a research facility where clinical studies were conducted clinical studies on the drug, and the research facility.

Hopson claims that Kay Faubion-Hopson's ingestion of …