Vioxx jury awards €36m to heart-attack man

US painkiller Vioxx contributed to an Idaho postal worker’s heart attack, a jury in Atlantic City has ruled, reversing the verdict in the man’s first trial and hitting Merck with a total of $47.5m (€36m) in damages.

In one of Merck’s biggest losses over the drug so far, the jurors awarded the man and his wife $20m (€15.1m)s in compensatory damages, then later said Merck should pay $27.5m (€20.8m) in punitive damages.