In the coming weeks, the U.S. House and Senate will have to reconcile bills they passed that give the Food and Drug Administration more money and authority to guarantee the safety of prescription drugs.
While Vioxx was pulled from the US market due to an elevated risk of heart attacks and stroke in adults, Celebrex remains on the US market.
A pair of meta-analysis offered yet more evidence that Vioxx (rofecoxib) was the bad actor of the Cox-2 class of pain-killers increasing both cardiovascular and renal risks.
People who have survived a first heart attack have a higher risk of dying or having a second heart attack if they are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including the newer class called cox-2 inhibitors.
The saga of the class of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors has provided an ongoing glimpse into a number of aspects of the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry.
Merck tried its best to hide the fatal risks of taking Vioxx and aggressively marketed the drug to drown out any questions about safety.
Genetics may explain as much as 30 percent of the differences in how people respond to painkillers like COX-2 inhibitors, but they paint only part of the picture.
Another day, another negative study involving COX-2 inhibitors; the class of drugs that includes Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, and other NSAIDs.
Pfizer Inc. is responding to a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission for information and documents on its Bextra and Celebrex painkillers.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked Pfizer Inc. for information about two of its painkillers, Celebrex and Bextra.
