The New York Times, "Merck's Actions on Vioxx Face New Scrutiny"

          The spotlight is likely to be on Pfizer tomorrow when federal drug regulators begin hearings on cox-2 drugs, the class of arthritis and pain medicines that include the company's Celebrex and Bextra brands. After all, Merck, which made the other drug in that class, Vioxx, pulled it off the market last fall, citing its safety risks.
          But Wall Street analysts and battalions of lawyers will be intently watching testimony by and about Merck because the company faces hundreds of lawsuits over Vioxx, some of them scheduled to go to trial as early as May in Alabama and Texas. Consolidated groups of cases are headed for trial in California and New Jersey this summer.
          The three days of hearings by an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration are expected to include extensive testimony about how Merck and the federal agency dealt with safety concerns about Vioxx in the years and months before the company withdrew the drug.