If you take Vioxx

[Colleen Thomas]

Merck is recalling the drug. They have found the incidence of Heart attack and stroke to be twice that in people who don't take it. If you are on it, consult your doctor and stop taking it according to the ap report.

-Colly

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I used to take it, thankfully it didn't work for me....whew.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I used to take it, thankfully it didn't work for me....whew.

Ditto

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Ditto

I was on celebrex too, I'm supposed to be on Bextra, but I just pop 4 advils and I'm good to go....who needs a liver anyway?

 

[UnderMyKilt]

I took Vioxx for several years, both before and after, cervical spine surgery. As my wife is an RN in a Cardiac Cath lab, we knew about the possible issues well over a year ago and I stopped taking it. I've suffered ever since.

It was the ONLY NSAID that did a thing for me. One 25mg Vioxx a day was far more effective than quadruple the dose of Celebrex or almost toxic doses of Ibuprofin. Without Vioxx, I am convinced that I never would have been able to stop using narcotic pain relievers.

As a side note, Celebrex has been implicated in similar issues as have all NSAIDs which are COX-2 inhibitors only.

Part of the issue, at least as far as Celebrex is concerned, is that many MD's reduced the dose of blood thinners taken by their cardiac patients when those patients were also placed on NSAIDS. This was due to the blood thinning effects of the "non-selective" (meaning both COX 1 and 2 inhibiting) NSAIDS. When doctors put their patients on the new generation of "selective", COX-2 only inhibiting NSAIDS, which do not thin the blood, many neglected to also put their patients back on other blood thinners. As a result, many of those patients had issues with clots or platelets forming in their arteries.

Personally, I think that if Pfizer were to study Celebrex as comprehensively, and honestly, as Merck did Vioxx, it too might be pulled from the market.

Merck may have committed corporate suicide by pulling their flagship product but, at least they had the honesty and integrity to put public health above their own corporate greed.

 

[just pet]

You might insist on an EKG

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63157-2004Sep30.html

Arthritis Drug Vioxx Is Taken Off Market
Users' Risk of Stroke, Heart Attack Is Cited

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 1, 2004; Page A01

The blockbuster arthritis drug Vioxx was taken off the market yesterday by Merck & Co. after a study confirmed simmering concerns that it significantly raises the risk of heart attack and stroke. More than 2 million people take Vioxx worldwide, making this the largest voluntary drug recall in history.

Merck said that it received new information last week showing that people who used the drug for more than 18 months had nearly twice as many serious cardiovascular problems as those on a placebo. By Tuesday, the company had told the Food and Drug Administration that it planned to withdraw the drug.

"We believe it would have been possible to continue to market Vioxx with labeling that would incorporate these new data," said Merck President Raymond V. Gilmartin. "However, given the availability of alternative therapies and the questions raised by the data, we concluded that a voluntary withdrawal is the responsible course to take."

FDA officials said they would begin an additional study of three other painkillers in the class called COX-2 inhibitors, which were hailed as near-miracle drugs when they came on the market in the late 1990s. The officials said the other COX-2 inhibitors have not been associated with the same dangers of stroke and heart attack but acknowledged that no patients using them have been followed for 18 months, as was the case with Vioxx.

The drug generated $2.5 billion in worldwide sales last year, and its withdrawal slashed the company's stock price by more than $12 a share, reducing the company's market valuation by more than a quarter.

Although Vioxx was aggressively marketed after it won FDA approval in 1999 and has been used widely -- with more than 84 million prescriptions written -- serious health concerns were reported soon after it became available. The FDA required additional warnings on the drug's label in 2002, and several months ago, it received the abstract of another report describing heightened cardiac and stroke risks with Vioxx. FDA officials said they were studying those results when Merck contacted them earlier this week.

Patients who said they have been harmed by Vioxx had filed more than 200 lawsuits before yesterday's announcement. Many of the cases have been consolidated into two major lawsuits in Los Angeles and New Jersey.

Merck officials stressed that, in the new study, there were no more than the expected number of deaths among the patients taking Vioxx, and that they knew of no deaths that should be attributed to the drug. But the company, long one of the biggest and most respected in the industry, was clearly concerned about a potential onslaught of lawsuits.

"We have substantial defenses in these cases and will defend them vigorously," said Kenneth Frazier, Merck's general counsel.

Vioxx is the first prescription drug to be withdrawn since 2001, when the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol was taken off the market. In the four years preceding that, 11 drugs were withdrawn for safety reasons.

 

[Guest]

i have nothing scientific to lend to this.. its purely emotional.. however, the doctors caring for my mom said that vioxx was part of the culprit that led to my mother's death.
i abhor taking meds on a daily basis after seeing what all the arthritis drugs did to ruin my mothers body. blanket statements from me i know but there it is none-the-less.
its a horrid thing, living with pain every day, but really the drug manufacturers offer little for those with rhumatoid arthritis that isnt harsh on other body parts... most of them are off shoots of cancer drugs ...

ok.
rant done
thanks