First Vioxx verdict to come from Angleton

08:36 AM CDT on Monday, May 2, 2005

By Nancy Holland / 11 News

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The first Vioxx verdict in the nation could come from the small town of Angleton, Texas.

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Bob Ernst, 59, was a triathlete in good shape. He died in his sleep, and his wife believes it was because he took Vioxx.

A jury must decide if the death of Texas triathlete Bob Ernst was a tragic coincidence or a result of the drug.

At 59, Ernst was fit.

As the leader of a "Young at Heart" fitness class, he wanted everybody else to be fit too. He ran marathons and triathlons and he was, his wife says, the image of health.

"It's one that when I first look at it I think 'Oh, you look so good', and then it's instantly like 'How could this happen to you? How could this happen to us?" says widow Carol Ernst as she looks at a photo of her husband crossing a finish line.

For eight or nine months Ernst took Vioxx, convinced, his wife says, that the one a day pill was better for arthritis in his hands.

Eight days after a 62-mile bike ride, with no history of heart trouble, Ernst died in his sleep.

It was three days before his first wedding anniversary.

"This shirt is from the bike ride we did," Ernst says, " I truly believe that Vioxx was the reason that Bob's gone." But attorney Mark Lanier can't just claim that Vioxx led to Ernst's heart attack, he has to prove it.

"That's the nice simplicity of this case. I use Merck's own documents to prove it. Merck themselves have done studies that show Vioxx can cause more heart attacks after only six weeks of usage. They've just hidden the studies and won't show them to anybody, but we've got them," says Ernst attorney Mark Lanier.

"There are no secret studies. Merck studied this drug very diligently, studied in over 10,000 patients before the drug was brought to market. All that data was given to the FDA," says Ted Mayer, Merck attorney.

Attorneys for Vioxx maker Merck will argue that the information on Vioxx was evolving science, and that the drug giant voluntarily pulled Vioxx from the market.

A federal judge in New Orleans wants the federal courts to be the primary focus of lawsuits in a court fight that could take four to five years.

But, for now, the state trial over whether Merck is responsible for heart problems is still set to begin May 31st in Angleton, a small town in Texas where the city's slogan will hang over the heads of jurors.

The slogan, "Where the heart is", seems singularly appropriate as they weigh their decision.

What they decide could reach across the nation. The verdict here could be the first of what some analysts believe might cost Merck $20 billion.

"Justice and not a penny more but not a penny less," says Lanier.

Merck has made it clear it will be tenacious about its own view of justice. "A sudden death in any family is a tragedy. Vioxx had nothing to do with causing the death in this case," says Mayer.

Carol Ernst knows this will be a bitter fight but she says her children have convinced her it is right and that the man who ran marathons would be proud of her for fighting for what she believes to the finish line. "Bob loved me just for who I was," she says.