Data suggested that Celebrex was indeed linked to some cardiovascular issues
March 1, 2005 16:42

Fear is contagious. This fact seems especially relevant these days in the drug industry. When Merck disclosed last fall that it was withdrawing its painkiller Vioxx from the market due to connection with cardiac events, worries later surfaced over Pfizer's own COX-2 inhibitors, Celebrex and Bextra. When some data suggested that Celebrex was indeed linked to some cardiovascular issues, the cycle

RedNova, Mon, 28 Feb 2005 7:03 AM PST If ever there were truth to the claim that one person's gain is another's pain it was in the FDA advisory panel's recent decision to allow Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra - the easy-on- the stomach painkillers and anti-inflammatories known as Cox-2 inhibitors - to go back on the market.

The committee voted to recommend that FDA allow the COX-2 inhibitors Celebrex and Bextra, both manufactured by Pfizer, to remain on the market and that the agency allow the COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx, manufactured by Merck, to return to the market (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/28). According to the editorial, without the votes of those 10 scientists, the committee "would have favored withdrawing Bextra from the market and blocking the return of Vioxx" and would have recommended that FDA allow only Celebrex to remain on the market, the review found. However, the "deeper problem is that links between drug companies and medical researchers are pervasive," the editorial states. The editorial concludes, "Unless the FDA makes a more aggressive effort to find unbiased experts or medical researchers start severing ties with industry, a whiff of bias may taint the verdicts of many advisory panels" (New York Times, 3/4).