BUSINESS BRIEFING / COURTS

A California state judge rejected a proposed class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of state residents who took the painkiller Vioxx before it was pulled from the market in 2004.

Lawyers for former Vioxx users and health insurance plans wanted to sue the drug’s maker, Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J., to recover what they paid for it. The plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that patients would have taken other pain relievers if they knew Vioxx doubled risk of heart attack and stroke.

But Judge Victoria Chaney of Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the patients and insurers cannot sue as a group. Judges have rejected some other similar lawsuits against Merck.