Pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co. has announced it will be appealing the $253.4-million US damage award given to the widow of a man who took the painkiller Vioxx.

"We believe that we have strong points to raise on appeal and are hopeful that the appeals process will correct the verdict," Kenneth C. Frazier, senior vice president and general counsel of Merck, said in a statement.

"Our appeal is about fundamental rights to a fair trial."

Merck lawyer Jonathan Skidmore said the appeal would focus on what he called "unreliable scientific evidence."

"It'll be based on the fact that we believe unqualified expert testimony was allowed in the case; there were expert opinions that weren't grounded in science, the type that are required in the state of Texas," he said.

"We don't believe they (plaintiffs) met their burden of proof."

James Friudenberg, one of the two jurors who voted for Merck, said he "couldn't go with the probabilities" of what caused Robert Ernst's death.

"I think there are a lot of good people there who care," he said of the drug giant.

The award, handed down to Ernst's widow Carol by a jury Friday, is likely to be reduced to no more than $26.1 million because Texas law limits punitive damages.

Jurors determined that the drug killed Ernst in his sleep in 2001. They rejected Merck's claim that he died of clogged arteries rather than a Vioxx-induced heart attack that led to his fatal arrhythmia.

By 2004, it was becoming clear that there were serious problems with Vioxx.

Independent studies were showing much higher rates of heart disease in Vioxx patients.

Merck removed the drug from store shelves after clinical trials showed that people who took the drug for more than 18 months had a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than did people receiving a placebo.

But in February, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 17-15 that Vioxx could be returned to the U.S. market under certain restrictions for some patients.

In July, a panel of medical advisers to the Canadian government recommended by a 12-1 vote that Vioxx be reinstated with certain restrictions. Merck plans to discuss the matter with Canada's health department.