Judge Remands Second Vioxx Case, Says Recovery Against Doctor Possible

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - A federal judge has remanded a second Vioxx lawsuit filed by the widow of a man who died after taking the arthritis drug. Eller v. Merck & Co., Inc., et al., No. 04-096 (S.D. Texas).

In a Jan. 7 opinion, Judge Janis Graham Jack of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that an amended complaint filed Oct. 4 adequately pled negligence and failure to warn causes of action against a non-diverse physician named in the complaint. Judge Jack issued a similar decision, also on Jan. 7, in Zajicek v. Merck & …