Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas | | | | | | | Lawyer: Merck downplayed Vioxx safety to doctors 02:14 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 Associated Press ANGLETON, Texas - The plaintiff's lawyer in the country's first Vioxx-related civil trial grilled Merck & Co.'s top epidemiologist Wednesday about whether Merck deliberately minimized safety issues of the drug while promoting it to doctors in 2000. Mark Lanier, who represents the widow of a Texas man who died in May 2001 after taking Vioxx for eight months, told jurors about the results of 1999 clinical trials of Vioxx on osteoarthritis patients. The so-called "CV cards," intended to show cardiovascular effects of Vioxx, indicated little difference between Vioxx and sugar pill groups. Dr. Nancy Santanello, head of Merck's epidemiology department, has repeatedly said that such trials conducted be

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