Federal Vioxx retrial in February 2006

As reported earlier, the first federal Vioxx trial ended in a mistrial in Houston, Texas. Judge Eldon Fallon has now announced that the retrial will commence February 6 next year.

Since the jury went into deliberations in the Houston trial, damaging information about Merck's deception has been disclosed by the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the Journal, Merck scientists tried to mislead the scientific community by hiding the number of deaths from the drug.

Another favorable development for Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, the plaintiff in this case, is that the trial is being moved back to New Orleans, where it was originally meant to be tried but had to be moved due to Hurricane Katrina. The jurors in Houston are tend to be highly conservative and typically tend to favor businesses rather than American people. The jury in New Orleans is expected to be more favorable to victims.

Related article: Dates also set for New Jersey trials