Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Indiana’s Mitch Daniels (pictured left) have been subpoenaed by people who blame their heart attacks or those of family members on Merck’s Vioxx, the Associated Press reports. Both govs have past ties to pharma, and plaintiffs’ lawyer Russ Herman says they were subpoenaed to testify about consultations with the FDA before the agency set new drug label rules in 2006.

The FDA contends that, since the rules define what must be stated on labels, they pre-empt state law. Therefore, claims that a warning was inadequate under state law would be invalid, the FDA says. However, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon ruled July 3 that the FDA’s stand “is entirely unpersuasive.”

“The FDA said it ran a survey about, basically, how consumer rights would be affected” by such a statement, says Herman. “We want to find out exactly what these conversations were with the FDA and what these governors actually did. And we want their documentation on their position that consumer rights and states’ rights wouldn’t be affected.”

Barbour (pictured to the right) is supposed to give a videotaped deposition on Sept. 4 in Jackson, Miss., and Daniels on Sept. 11 in Indianapolis. The documents state that subpoenaes were mailed Tuesday, the AP writes. Barbour, whose clients as a lobbyist before he was elected governor included several big drugmakers, but he can’t comment because he hasn’t received a subpoena, his spokesman says. Daniels was a Lilly exec from 1993-2001, but his spokesman says he hasn’t heard about the subpoena.

Subponaes were also issued to the Council of State Governors, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the National Conference of State Legislators and the National Governors Association for records of similar contacts with FDA.