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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / January 2005new study criticizes painkiller MARKETING
New Study Criticizes Painkiller Marketing Arthritis Drug Ads A Factor in Overuse By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 25, 2005; Page A01 A majority of the patients who were persuaded to use prescription arthritis drugs such as Celebrex and Vioxx would have done just as well on older, cheaper medications and would have avoided the potential heart and stroke risks now linked to those blockbuster drugs, according to a study of how they were marketed http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33786-2005Jan24.html Knowing people might die..... Zee "But is Celebrex really easier on the stomach? The Journal of the American Medical Association said so four years ago. A six-month study paid for by the makers of Celebrex, showed fewer ulcers and stomach troubles than Ibuprofen. Celebrex's reputation was locked in and global sales climbed to $3 billion. But in fact, a lot - like half the study - was left out of that glowing journal article. "The truth is it was not a six-month study, it was a 12-month study," says Dr. John Abramson of Harvard Medical School." Abramson says that unreported second half of the study told an entirely different story, one most doctors never heard. "In the second six months, the patients who took Celebrex had far more serious gastrointestinal complications than patients who took the older drugs," says Abramson. " http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/24/eveningnews/main668878.shtml NSAIDs are simply the most deadly class of medication. http://www.healthsentinel.com/files/research/WordFile/ToxicAndDeadlyNSAIDs.doc http://www.healthsentinel.com/files/research/PDFFile/ToxicAndDeadlyNSAIDs.pdf > NSAIDs are simply the most deadly class of medication. LOL Where do you people come from? :-)  Signaturespammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. To jump to the end of the story, as a result of this I need a bone marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor: http://www.abmdr.org.au/ http://www.marrow.org/ > > NSAIDs are simply the most deadly class of medication. > LOL > > Where do you people come from? :-) I'm not sure that there's a single source. Some of them might actually be well-intentioned fools who have been inspired by Ralph Nader's long history of consumer advocacy and see themselves as "saving" us from the dangers of using medications that might improve our lives. Personally, however, given what I read elsewhere on Usenet my bet is that these are closet anarchists and Libertarians who want to attack our access to medicine by pointing out that more people have died due to complications of NSAID- class drugs the past few years than from all of the illegal drugs combined. They don't give a darn about the fact that there's an obvious difference between taking informed risks in order to seek out medical benefits, and their desire to use drugs for "recreation". The question of origin really resolves down to whether you believe these people are acting out of motives of altruism or selfishness. Altruism does exist in the world, and it leads people to do marvelous things, but selfishness is far more common and far more plausible to me when I see somebody making a really pathetic argument that "Oooo those medicines are SO RISKY..." Well duh. Nobody but a fool should believe that ANY medicine is 100% safe and effective. SignatureNathan Engle Computer Support, IUB Psych Dept nengle@indiana.edu http://mypage.iu.edu/~nengle "Some Assembly Required" "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." Anatole France > > > NSAIDs are simply the most deadly class of medication. > [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > nengle@indiana.edu http://mypage.iu.edu/~nengle > "Some Assembly Required" New Studies Add to Data That Put Arthritis Drugs on Hot Seat 01-25-2005 4:22 AM By LINDSEY TANNER CHICAGO -- Merck & Co. forced one of its researchers to remove her name from a study linking Vioxx to heart attacks, then criticized the findings before ultimately pulling the arthritis drug from the market last fall, two of the scientist's colleagues said. "Even after funding and agreeing with the design of the study, Merck publicly discredited our findings," Drs. Daniel Solomon and Jerry Avorn of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital wrote in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine. Merck spokeswoman Anita Larsen confirmed the company's action, saying Merck believed the study's conclusions "were not supported by the data." The incident came about six months before another study prompted the drugmaker to withdraw Vioxx. The journal contains several studies about Vioxx and Celebrex, the once popular and heavily promoted painkillers advertised as stomach-friendly alternatives to aspirin. They are under congressional and regulatory scrutiny. One new report echoes previous data suggesting that in some older patients the drugs might not offer as much protection as thought against gastrointestinal problems. A separate study suggests they have been over-prescribed, frequently to patients at low risk for GI problems. And other research supports evidence that Vioxx increases some patients' blood pressure. Vioxx was withdrawn Sept. 30 because of a study suggesting it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke. Celebrex maker Pfizer Inc. halted its ads last month after a study linked high doses with increased heart and stroke risks. Both drugs are in a class called Cox-2 inhibitors. The Archives reports, published Monday, come just weeks before a Feb. 16-18 Food and Drug Administration meeting on the safety of all Cox-2 drugs. Also Monday, the watchdog group Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to immediately remove from the market Celebrex and a related drug, Bextra, because of the potential heart risks. Critics contend Merck attempted for years to suppress Vioxx risks found in numerous studies. The company maintains it has acted responsibly. The incident, mentioned in previous news reports, involved a Merck study of more than 50,000 patients age 65+ taking Vioxx, Celebrex, traditional pain- killers or none of the drugs. The results, published last year in the journal Circulation, showed Vioxx patients faced a higher heart attack risk than the other groups. When the results came in, "Merck required a co-author who was an employee of the company to remove her name from the article immediately prior to publication," Solomon and Avorn said in an Archives editorial. Solomon identified the co-author as Merck epidemiologist Carolyn Cannuscio. She did not respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment. Larsen said publication policies at Circulation and Merck allowed the drugmaker to remove the employee's name "if the authors draw conclusions that are not supported by the data." She said Cannuscio agreed with Merck's decision. Meanwhile, the British medical journal Lancet is releasing a study on the heart dangers of Vioxx after withholding the report because the researcher said he had been threatened by his superiors at the FDA. The study links Vioxx to between 88,000 and 140,000 excess cases of heart disease in the United States _ a conclusion that has previously been disclosed. Dr. David Graham, who works in the FDA's office of drug safety, claimed he was threatened with dismissal and said he asked the Lancet to withdraw the paper from publication in November. Earlier this month, the FDA agreed the study could be published. ___ On the Net: Archives of Internal Medicine: http://archinternmed.com I enquired about donating for bone marrow transplant, but unfortunately they will not accept me because I have had statin-induced mitochondrial myopathy. I volunteer to help them with their promotional material. Take care. I wish you well. Zee spodosaurus wrote and asked: > LOL > > Where do you people come from? :-) Consumer Group Urges FDA to Order Pain Killers Celebrex and Bextra Off the Market 01-25-2005 4:23 AM WASHINGTON -- A consumer group urged the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to order the pain killers Celebrex and Bextra off the market. Public Citizen charged that the two drugs from Pfizer Inc. increase the likelihood of heart attack. Celebrex and Bextra are part of the family of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors. Another drug in that group, Vioxx, was withdrawn last fall by its manufacturer, Merck & Co., because of heart problems. Similar concerns have been expressed about Celebrex and Bextra, but they remain on the market. Neither the FDA nor Pfizer responded immediately to requests for comment on Public Citizen's petition. COX-2 inhibitors have been widely popular for use as pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs with fewer stomach and intestinal side effects than such products as aspirin. ___ On the Net: Public Citizen: http://www.publiccitizen.org Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov Oh, yeah, the same folks who tried to get Arava killed a couple of years ago. I remember writing a fervent letter to the FDA on that one. I used to like Ralph Nader but I think his crusader image has long since gone to his head. I asked my RD about it all last week. He just said that the study was on bypass patients and he wasn't worried about anyone with an ok heart. SignatureNann remove the Gator cheer to email me Simply the thing I am shall make me live --- William Shakespeare > Consumer Group Urges FDA to Order Pain Killers > Celebrex and Bextra Off the Market [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > Public Citizen: http://www.publiccitizen.org > Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov |
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