Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Zeev Hed]

I am not too worried about it, I think the impact will be smaller than Baycor(?)(the Bayer Statin for cholesterol reduction). The withdrawal cost about $1 B to Bayer. Real peanuts. Frankly, I think that MRK simply has decided to push its other products in that field with a somewhat better profile, and the fact that they did it voluntarily rather then like Bayer, under pressure from the FDA, will make suing them much more difficult. The FDA requires reporting to it by physicians and drug makers "special events" related to new drugs given to patient. In five years, I would think that the FDA would have received a number of these reports if there was a major problem, I also wonder what special physiological weaknesses patients with colorectal problems (the study where the possible hazards were discovered) ave that make that special population of patients more vulnerable than the general population. The non cox inhibitors alternatives such as cortizone based drugs have much greater side effects. I am not sure how Pfizer can claim that their drug has no problem if it was not tested specifically in a colorectal impacted patient population.