A federal judge in Chicago last Friday denied Pfizer’s efforts to obtain confidential peer review documents related to Celebrex and Bextra from the Journal of the American Medical Association, according to Science magazine.

In January, Pfizer filed a motion asking for peer-review documents it had subpoenaed from 11 studies on the drugs published by the various journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, and also sought rejected studies, arguing the manuscripts might contain data that could be useful for its defense. The drugmaker is currently being sued in federal court in San Francisco by patients who claim the painkillers caused heart problems and wants the material for its defense.

NEJM argued that releasing the info would compromise its anonyous peer review process, a position supported in an affidavit by the editor-in-chief of Science, Donald Kennedy. Pfizer also filed a motion seeking peer reviews from JAMA and the Archives of Internal Medicine, which had published 11 studies on the drugs, Science writes.

In an affidavit filed on Feb. 29, Science wrote, JAMA’s editor-in-chief Catherine DeAngelis argued that if the court granted the motion, similar subpoenas could become routine, which could result in a “severe decline” in the number of peer reviewers and affect the journal’s ability “to properly discharge its mission to advance the betterment of public health.”

The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois rejected the claims, ruling that Pfizer didn’t sufficiently explain how the confidential peer review documents could help its case. “Although her statements are quite dramatic, it is not unreasonable to believe that compelling production of peer review documents would compromise the process,” wrote Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys, according to Science. “…whatever probative value the subpoenaed documents and information may have is outweighed by the burden and harm that would result” to the journals.

A similar suit is still pending in a US District Court in Massachusetts, where NEJM is also trying to block the Pfizer subpoena. That decision is expected within the next two weeks.