Drugs similar to Vioxx could raise heart risks
Associated Press
Momentum is growing for a fresh look at the safety of Celebrex and other pain relievers as key researchers, a congressman and European regulators said they feared such drugs might raise the risk of heart problems similar to those blamed on the arthritis medicine Vioxx.
Heavily advertised as an arthritis drug, Vioxx was pulled from the market last week after its maker said a study showed it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke. But the Food and Drug Administration said similar prescription drugs were safe.
On Wednesday, the European Medicines Agency in London announced it would review all drugs of this type. And researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine voiced their concerns as well with such drugs as Pfizer's popular Celebrex.
The medical journal published two reports on the issue Wednesday on the Internet -- more than two weeks ahead of their planned print publication -- to help inform doctors and patients considering whether to stop using the drugs.
Studies conducted five years ago when Celebrex and Merck & Co.'s Vioxx were approved suggest that the same mechanism that inhibits inflammation and makes the drugs easier on the stomach than traditional painkillers also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, according to Dr. Garret FitzGerald, a University of Pennsylvania cardiologist. FitzGerald led the studies, which were designed by him but funded by the drug companies.
''I believe this is a class effect,'' he said, meaning that the problem also applies to Celebrex and Pfizer's newer, similar drug, Bextra, which remain on the market.
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