As reported by the Associated Press, former Merck Chairman and Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin has agreed to a request by the plaintiff lawyer that he testify at a Vioxx trial set to begin in Atlantic City late this month. Quotes from the article:
Plaintiff lawyer Mark Lanier said he requested Gilmartin’s presence and intends to call him because “when you have to look a jury in the eye it is harder to fudge.”
Lanier won the first Vioxx trial last summer. Since then, Merck has won a case while the third ended in a mistrial. A fourth case started in Texas earlier this month.
The upcoming trial in New Jersey is slated to combine two plaintiffs, each a man who suffered a nonfatal heart attack after taking Vioxx for more than 18 months. Lanier represents one of the men.
