A mixed verdict for Merck:

A state jury found Merck & Co. liable on Wednesday for one of two former Vioxx users’ heart attacks and ordered he receive $4.5 million in damages in a closely-watched trial involving two New Jersey men.

The jury found the company failed to adequately warn both plaintiffs about the risk factors linking the now-withdrawn painkiller to heart attacks and strokes, but said the drug was only a factor in one of the men’s illnesses.

More to come.

Update –
Mark Lanier represented the losing defendant:
“My client was never in it for the money. He was in it for the truth.”

Ted Frank:
“. . . we won’t know for sure why the jury split on the question of causation until after they are interviewed, but one possibility is that they disbelieved the claims of Cona and Mark Lanier that the reason Cona’s pharmacy records only showed three prescriptions for seven months’ worth of Vioxx was that he had received fifteen months worth of free samples from his doctor.”