Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Merck Found Liable for Another Vioxx Death

A South Texas jury has found Merck & Co. liable for the death of a 71-year-old man who had a fatal heart attack five years ago within a month of taking the painkiller Vioxx.

The company was ordered to pay $7 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.

The jury of 10 men and two women in Rio Grande City deliberated for more than eight hours over two days before returning the verdict, the sixth delivered in a string of lawsuits against the manufacturer.

The verdict brings Merck’s scorecard in trials over the once-popular painkiller to three wins and three losses.

“Merck will appeal,” spokesman Kent Jarrel told the Associated Press.

In the prior two losses, the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company was ordered to pay one plaintiff $253.4 million, which will be reduced to $26 million under Texas caps on punitive damages; and the other $13.5 million.

In the current case, attorneys for the family of Leonel Garza said that while Garza had a history of heart problems, his veins had been cleared and a stress test showed less than a 2 percent risk of heart attack within a year. They said he had taken Vioxx for almost a month before he died in April 2001.

Merck lawyers argued that there was no proven link between heart problems and use of the drug for less than 18 months and said that there was doubt whether Garza had taken the drug for more than a week. His heart attack was the end result of 23 years of heart disease, they claimed according to the AP report.

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Battle Over Custom-Made Menopause Drugs

Drug maker Wyeth is demanding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration crack down on specialized compounding pharmacies that make custom-made hormone drugs to treat menopause. The drugs are made according to a doctor’s prescription.

In response to Wyeth’s request to the FDA, thousands of women who use the custom-made treatments have deluged the agency with letters opposing any move against compounding pharmacies, the Associated Press reported.

Many women turned to the products sold by compounding pharmacies after a 2002 federal study found that replacement hormones — HRT — made by drug companies increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer, the news service said.

Wyeth charges that some compounding pharmacies dupe women with products that may pose serious health risks. It wants the FDA to use seizures, injunctions, and warning letters to go after these pharmacies, the AP reported.

The custom-made estrogen, progesterone and testosterone products sold by compounding pharmacies are not FDA-approved. The FDA said it needs more time to review and respond to Wyeth’s petition and the 27,000 comments about it.

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Pregnant Women Should Reduce Hours at Stressful Jobs: Study

Pregnant women with stressful full-time jobs should consider reducing their work week to about 24 hours to prevent health problems in their babies, Dutch researchers say.

Their study of 7,000 pregnant women in Amsterdam found that expectant mothers who work more than 32 hours a week in high-stress jobs were at increased risk for the dangerous blood-pressure pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia. They were also more likely to have low birth-weight babies and babies who cried excessively, Agence France Presse reported.

“If you want to be on the safe side I would say that they should not work more than 24 hours a week, a three-day work week,” said researcher Gouke Bonsel, a social health professor.

Low birth-weight babies born to women with st