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NEW YORK (CNN) -
A New Jersey state judge who is overseeing about 3,500 personal-injury lawsuits filed by users of Vioxx says she wants to hear only upcoming cases involving plaintiffs who took the drug for 18 months or longer, according to Ted Mayer, an outside attorney for Vioxx maker Merck & Co.
Judge Carol Higbee's plan could make defending Vioxx harder for Merck (Research), because last year the drug maker acknowledged that daily use of the painkiller could cause cardiovascular problems after being taken for more than 18 months.
Merck won a major battle in Higbee's court last week, when a jury found the drug maker did not mislead doctors and consumers about the danger of using Vioxx in a case where the plaintiff, a heart-attack survivor, had used it for only two months.
Mayer says Merck will challenge Higbee's new plan.
A transcript of the judge's meeting with attorneys Monday, obtained by CNN from a source close to the situation, showed Higbee said about 60 percent of the 1,900 cases she's looked at involve plaintiffs who used Vioxx for 18 months or more. Mayer contends the number of cases is "significantly lower."
Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in September 2004 after a study linked the drug to heart attacks and strokes. Last week's trial was only the second from among about 6,400 personal-injury lawsuits related to Vioxx use.
In August, a jury in a federal trial found Merck liable for the death of a man who died of a heart attack while taking Vioxx at the time of his death. The jury awarded his widow $250 million in total damages.
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