NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A Texas judge Tuesday rejected Merck's request to postpone its July 11 court date for the first of thousands of lawsuits involving Vioxx, an arthritis painkiller the company withdrew last year because of health risks.

Merck & Co (up $0.04 to $31.10, Research)., the drug giant that faces more than 2,300 lawsuits following the Vioxx withdrawal, had filed a motion asking Judge Ben Hardin of Texas Superior Court to postpone the first of its civil trials because of recent negative publicity. Judge Hardin rejected that motion Tuesday, a court spokeswoman told CNN/Money.

The motion, filed by New York law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, requested a 60-day postponement "on the ground that recent pretrial publicity has destroyed any possibility that Merck can receive a fair trial commencing July 11."

Despite the judge's rejection, Merck spokeswoman Casey Stavropoulos said the company was ready to defend itself.

"We are ready to go to trial and confident in our case," said Stavropoulos.

Houston attorney W. Mark Lanier is scheduled to take on the company on behalf of Carol Ernst, who blames Vioxx for the 2001 death of her husband.

"Merck's day of reckoning is at hand," said Lanier, in an interview prior to the judge's rejection. "We smell desperation on their part."

Merck's attorneys filed the motion July 1, the day after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued the drugmaker for allegedly misrepresenting the safety of arthritis painkiller Vioxx. Abbott is seeking $168 million in damages because the Texas Medicaid program reimbursed pharmacists for Vioxx prescriptions.

"Whatever lies behind this suspicious timing, it effectively eliminates any possibility that Merck can receive a fair trial beginning July 11," read the motion from Hughes, Hubbard & Reed.

Merck's lawyers named the following news agencies as contributors to its negative publicity: CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and Texas-based news organizations Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV.

Merck pulled Vioxx, worth $2.5 billion in annual sales, from the market last Sept. 30, citing a risk of heart attacks and strokes from its use. Since that time, more than 2,300 lawsuits have been filed against Merck, a Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company with 2004 sales of $22.9 billion.

A spokesman for Hughes, Hubbard & Reed said the firm plans to defend Merck in the Ernst case by pointing to a lack of scientific evidence proving that Vioxx caused the plaintiff's death.

Other drugs in the class of cox-2 inhibitors, which block joint inflammation, have run into trouble with the Food and Drug Administration.

On April 7, the FDA asked Pfizer Inc. (down $0.05 to $27.05, Research), the world's biggest drug company, to take Bextra, a $1.3 billion drug, off the market. On the same day, the FDA said it was considering a black box, its most serious warning, for Celebrex, a $3.3 billion blockbuster. Pfizer is in negotiations with the FDA over details of the label.

These drugs were approved by the FDA before entering the market.

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