NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - In a Houston courtroom on Wednesday, a Merck executive denied she pressured a doctor to keep an unfavorable Vioxx story out of a leading medical journal, according to a published news report.

In the third lawsuit case against Merck over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, Dr. Alise Reicin, the company's vice president of clinical research, testified that she did not try to stop a doctor from publishing a story which raised concerns that Vioxx could cause heart attacks and strokes, the Houston Chronicle reported on Thursday.

"Absolutely not," said Reicin, when asked by a defense lawyer if she tried to influence the writing of the article. "It's not something that I would do."

The case could go to the jury today.

In the federal trial, shortly before the defense rested its case, Reicin said she visited Dr. Eric Topol, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, at his office to express Merck's view that the drug was safe. Four months later in August, 2001, Topol and other doctors published their story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Topol testified on Saturday that scientists said Vioxx studies "raise a cautionary flag" about the cardiovascular risks of the drug.

Andy Birchfield, a lawyer representing a plaintiff who is suing Merck over the 2001 death of her husband, confronted Reicin with company e-mails showing that she and other Merck employees tried to edit an early draft of the article to reflect the "Merck perspective" and have Topol's conclusion "toned down."

Birchfield is representing Evelyn Irvin Plunkett of St. Augustine, Fla., who blames Vioxx for the fatal heart attack of her husband Richard Irvin.

Plunkett's case is the third against Merck and the first federal case, out of a tally of lawsuits exceeding 6,500. Vioxx had $2.5 billion in annual revenue when Merck withdrew it from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, following a study that suggested an increase of heart attacks and strokes in patients who took the drug for at least 18 months.

In state courts, Merck was sued successfully in the first trial, but the company won the second case.

To read more about the Plunkett trial, click here.