Jury Finds for Merck in New Jersey Grandmother's Vioxx Lawsuit

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A New Jersey jury has absolved Merck & Co. Inc. of liability for a non-fatal heart attack suffered in 2004 by a 68-year-old grandmother who took the drug for two and a half years. Doherty, et al. v. Merck & Co. Inc., No. ATL-L-638-05 (N.J. Super. Ct., Atlantic Cty.).

The July 13 verdict was reached by the five-man, two-woman jury after nine and a half hours of deliberation over two days in the Atlantic County Superior Court. Judge Carol E. Higbee presided over the trial, which began June 5.

Jurors found that Merck did not violate …