The New York-based group already represented the clinicfor free in a lawsuit over a 2011 law banning the widely accepted use of a medication that induces abortion.
The traditional approach for measuring metabolism is to use a metabolic cart, which is rather bulky and expensive equipment, available only in clinic or research labs.
Chip Lavie, a cardiologist at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, says that he would not worry about using Vioxx for short-term use, but understands Merck's decision to pull it.