Appeals courts in two US states last week overturned verdicts favouring plaintiffs who had sued Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, over its painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib). The drug was taken off the market in 2004 after a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. In Texas, a three-judge panel reversed a $26-million jury verdict in the first and most public Vioxx lawsuit. It said that lawyers for Carol Ernst had failed to prove that the drug caused the death of her husband in 2001 (see Nature 436,1070; 2005). Ernst's lead attorney said they would appeal the decision.
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