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(KSL News) Pharmaceutical company Merck is not responsible for a heart attack suffered by a Utah man after taking the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
Charles Laron "Ron" Mason took Vioxx for 10 and a half months, then had a heart attack.
Yesterday, Merck argued Vioxx had nothing to do with his heart attack because he stopped taking it four days prior to the attack. They said Vioxx cannot cause a heart attack if it's not in the system, and that it leaves the system in a couple days.
But Mason's lawyer argued the drug's effects didn't go away in those four days.
A federal jury ruled in favor of Merck.
Mason's case is among more than 24-thousand filed since Vioxx was taken off the market two years ago.
