Merck witness disputes cause of death.

I find it amazing how coverage of the Vioxx trial has fallen off a cliff since Attorney Mark Lanier rested his case and Merck began presenting their defense. It's consistent with what i've heard and been seeing in that Merck just got blasted on the opening round and has never really recovered from the intense and methodical attack Lanier laid on them.

This little snippet from the Wall Street Journal online addition makes it pretty clear that the defense is trying desperately to get the focus back on reasonable doubt on causation, which has been their strongest argument from the beginning, as they clearly have little hope if the trial focuses on their marketing and research knowledge about Vioxx problems leading up to the pulling of the product.

We will have a follow up interview on Friday of this week with a couple of attorney's who have been at the trial and will bring you the most recent news as we get it here.