After less than 11 hours of deliberation, a Texas jury yesterday found Merck & Co. responsible for the death of a 59-year-old triathlete who was taking the company's once-popular painkiller, Vioxx.

The jury hearing the first Vioxx case to go to trial awarded the man's widow $253.4 million in punitive and compensatory damages -- a sharp rebuke to an industry leader that enjoyed an unusually favorable public image before the Vioxx debacle began to unfold one year go.

The quick and punishing jury decision portends a difficult road ahead for a company that faces more than 7,500 lawsuits from customers who say they have been harmed by the painkiller once widely used by arthritis patients. The verdict also comes as the industry and the Food and Drug Administration that regulates it are struggling to respond to broad criticism that they have not put enough emphasis on the safety of prescription drugs.

Merck and the FDA have defended their actions in evaluating the benefits and risks of Vioxx from before it went on the market in 1999 until it was withdrawn last September. But a 10 to 2 majority of the jury of seven men and five women in a small town south of Houston did not agree and rejected Merck's argument that Robert Ernst died of clogged arteries rather than a Vioxx-induced heart attack that led to a fatal heart rhythm irregularity.