Letter to the editor below, in response to the following
excerpts from a Copley Press editorial:

Changes at FDA
Agency takes right direction on painkillers

...the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may have made
the best of a potentially bad situation with its handling of 3
major painkillers that had been found to increase the risk
of heart attack and stroke.
The drugs in question -- Bextra, Celebres and Vioxx --
will remain available to consumers but doctors will be
more careful in prscribing the medications, stronger
warnings may be placed on the packaged drugs and
advertising may be prohibited.
The handling of these decisions on the painkillers.....

 Editor:

 RE: Changes at FDA, Friday, February 25, 2005, page B8

 Perhaps the problems with Bextra, Celebrex and Vioxx have
 not originated with the FDA but with the media (including this
 newspaper) and Madison Avenue that hype these drugs with
 the misnomer "pain killers", which they are not.

 All three are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID),
 which as the name implies reduces inflammation.

 Other NSAIDs include Trilisate, Dolobid, Nalfon, Motrin,
 Indocin (Indomethacin), Naprosyn, Feldene, and Zomax.

 Any pain reduction as a result of reduced inflammation
 does not mean they are "pain killers" in the same class
 as aspirin and morphine.

 "Because experimental tests on a new drug are done on
 a relatively small number of people with arthritis (five
 to ten thousand), many rare side effects - some of which
 can be serious - do not become known until after the drug
 has been taken by 100,000 or even 1 million people.  New
 drugs are often introduced with a great deal of publicity,
 some of it sensational."

 The Arthritis Foundation
 "Understanding Arthritis" (c)1984

 signed ................