MERCK won an important victory in the legal battle over the effects of its Vioxx pain reliever last night as a New Jersey jury decided that the drug company was not to blame for a heart attack suffered by an elderly postman.

The court victory was an unexpected boost to the drug company’s strategy of pursuing each of the many hundreds of cases brought against it by former Vioxx users. Vioxx was taken off the market last year as the drug was found to cause fatal heart attacks and strokes in people prescribed it for more than 18 months.

Earlier this year Merck suffered a crippling defeat in its first Vioxx compensation case when the wife of a fitness fanatic who died of a heart attack after taking the drug for more than a year was awarded $253 million damages, in Texas.

The legal action concluded yesterday was brought by 60-year-old Fred Humeston, from Idaho, who had a litany of illnesses and was under severe stress. Mr Humeston was only prescribed Vioxx for two months to treat the pain from a Vietnam War wound in his knee before he suffered a heart attack in 2001. The nine-member jury took eight hours to decide that Merck did not misrepresent, suppress or conceal information about the increased risks of heart attack and stroke connected with taking Vioxx.

Merck has set aside just $675 million to fight the 2,700 state cases filed by Vioxx users but nothing to pay settlements. If each case is heard in turn the company could spend decades in and out of the courts.

Dr David Graham, the US Food and Drug Administration official who turned whistleblower to reveal damaging information about Vioxx that forced it off the shelves, said he was disappointed with the verdict.

“This victory for Merck does not change the fact that Vioxx has been a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients who took it for any length of time,” he said.

Mr Humeston remained defiant. “I came in here with my head held high and I’ll leave the same way,” he said. “This product was a poison pill. It was a mistake by Merck and they refuse to acknowledge it.”

Merck shares shot up by more than 4 per cent in afternoon trading on Wall Street to $29.66.

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