Trials of three civil actions starting in the United States this month will examine whether Merck's cyclo-oxygenase-2 painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib) caused the plaintiffs' heart attacks. Lawyers for both plaintiffs and Merck have claimed that editorial information ordered by the court from the New England Journal of Medicine will help their cases on whether Merck promptly and accurately disclosed the drug's cardiac risks.

Gregory Curfman, the executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, last week gave a deposition—a sworn pretrial “discovery” testimony—in connection with the forthcoming retrial of a federal case originally tried in …