Word: vioxx
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...deal with the problem," says Fishman. "So we have to train primary-care physicians at the front lines to be able to do this as part of the basic care that we give patients." For that to happen, more doctors and patients will have to heed the lessons of Vioxx and Celebrex and refuse to settle for prescription-pad medicine. --With reporting by Dan Cray/ Los Angeles, Chris Daniels/ Toronto, Alice Park/ New York and Maggie Sieger/ Chicago
...first sign of trouble came last fall when a large trial involving the popular pain-killer Vioxx was halted two months early because some patients had developed serious heart problems. The results were so disturbing that Merck, which manufactures Vioxx, pulled its billion-dollar blockbuster off the market...
Those concerns were answered last week by a series of studies that showed an increased risk of heart problems in users of not just Vioxx but Celebrex and Bextra as well, and by FDA advisory panels that recommended stronger warnings for the whole class of pain relievers known as COX-2 inhibitors. "The cardiovascular problems appear to be a class effect," says Dr. Eric Topol, director of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "But the magnitude of risk does seem to differ from drug to drug." It's now up to the FDA to decide whether the dangers, which...
...increased incidence of heart attacks and strokes in COX-2 users. In separate studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, researchers found that high-dose Celebrex users were three times as likely as nonusers to die from a heart or stroke event, while those taking Vioxx had twice the chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke. It's too early to say whether these studies mean one drug is more dangerous than another...
...endured its share of rough patches. But "rough patch" hardly begins to describe all the bad news that has battered the agency over the past few months, from the possible suicide risks with antidepressants like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft to the cardiac risks of pain-killers like Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra. Americans depend on the FDA to carefully weigh the benefits and risks of all drugs before approving them, but the agency has had trouble lately shaking the growing perception, justified or not, that it has been working harder protecting the pharmaceutical industry than the public it's supposed...