Johnson & Johnson is defending claims by the families of two men who died after taking the company's heartburn medicine Propulsid. The lawsuits are the first involving the drug to go to trial in more than a year.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin today in trials in Napa County in Northern California and in New Orleans.
The world's No. 2 medical products maker and its Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. unit halted U.S. pharmacy sales of the nighttime heartburn remedy, which has been linked to 429 deaths, in September 2001.
