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 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - After two weeks on the defensive, Merck & Co. began presenting its side of the Vioxx story to a jury Tuesday, hoping to show that the popular arthritis drug was thoroughly tested before being sold and didn't cause the heart attacks suffered by two New Jersey men.
Confident history wouldn't repeat itself, Merck's lawyers called as their first witness a company scientist whose testimony in a previous trial here was thrown out by an angry judge because it overstepped the bounds of restrictions she set in advance.
The witness, Merck Research Laboratories vice president Dr. Briggs Morrison, outlined the history of the painkiller's development for the eight-person jury and said Merck told regulators before the drug hit the shelves there were concerns about its cardiovascular effects.
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