In a lawsuit to be filed this week, a group of doctors and plaintiff Nancy Tufford allege that Merck & Company relied on animal tests that showed the pain relief drug Vioxx to be safe while setting aside evidence that Vioxx increases risk of cardiac events in human patients.

Founded 1985, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, claims to have obtained previously undisclosed Merck data that forms one of the cornerstones of the legal challenge.

In September 2004, Merck pulled Vioxx off the market after a study found that it increases a patients’ risk of heart attack and stroke.

(via PR Newswire)