From the Associated Press Closing Arguments Begin in Vioxx Trial Wednesday August 17, 2005 8:46 PM AP Photo TXPS105 By KRISTEN HAYS AP Business Writer ANGLETON, Texas (AP) - Merck & Co. should have told doctors and consumers ``the good, the bad and the ugly'' about Vioxx long before pulling it from the market last year, a plaintiff's attorney said Wednesday in closing arguments in the nation's first civil trial involving the once-popular painkiller. Mark Lanier, who represents the widow of a Texas man who died in 2001, accused the New Jersey pharmaceutical company of practicing denial and deception for the last decade, minimizing safety concerns about Vioxx to reap billions in annual profits. ``We have a right to know,'' Lanier said of any potentially lethal side effects. ``They ought to tell us the good, the bad and the ugly.'' Merck law

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