Big Health Plan Suspends Use of Painkiller
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Kaiser Permanente has stopped dispensing Bextra, an arthritis and pain drug made by Pfizer that may increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
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Health officials said on Friday they  had dropped plans to keep a public list of prescription drugs  with emerging safety concerns, one of the measures proposed  after Merck & Co.'s 2004 withdrawal of its arthritis drug  Vioxx.
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TUESDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Some American seniors stop taking medications for chronic health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes when they exceed spending limits in their Medicare prescription drug plans, new research shows.
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The US Food and Drug Administration says it plans to convene a panel of experts in February to discuss the safety of painkillers in the same class as the now-withdrawn drug Vioxx, but one member of the panel was asked not to come.
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Doctors should limit use of Pfizer Inc.&#39;s Celebrex and Bextra pain drugs while regulators continue to weigh their cardiovascular risks, the US Food and Drug Administration said.
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A prescription painkiller used by more than 250,000 Australians to treat arthritis has been withdrawn from sale after a clinical trial found it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke.
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Doctors who led three studies showing prescription painkillers called COX-2 inhibitors raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke said on Tuesday the whole class of drugs was in danger of being pulled from the market.
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Merck &amp; Co. withdrew its Vioxx painkiller, which generated $2.5 billion in sales last year, because of a link to heart attacks and strokes.
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The Food and Drug Administration has told a researcher that he cannot be part of an advisory panel that will meet early next year to review the safety of a class of drugs, COX-2 inhibitors, used to treat arthritis and pain.
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Health officials said on Friday they had dropped plans to keep a public list of prescription drugs with emerging safety concerns, one of the measures proposed after Merck & Co.'s 2004 withdrawal of its arthritis drug Vioxx.
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WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration is preventing an agency scientist from presenting the largest, most up-to-date study of popular painkillers like Bextra, Celebrex and Vioxx during an FDA meeting next week on heart risks posed by the drugs, a US senator charged.
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Doctors writing in a prominent medical journal on Friday recommended that physicians stop prescribing Pfizer Inc.'s Bextra painkiller, just as a large study found the drugmaker's sister drug, Celebrex,  doubled risk of heart attacks.
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For years, Americans have been popping painkillers like they were candy to treat everything from headaches to arthritis. But new data show America's love affair with the medications may have cooled off after the blockbuster drug Vioxx was pulled from the market over safety concerns.
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A PAINKILLER for arthritis sufferers should have been banned four years ago, experts said yesterday. Vioxx, used by 400,000 Brits, was taken off the market by its US makers last month due to potentially deadly side-effects.
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Pfizer Inc., the world&#39;s biggest drugmaker, said it will stop advertising its Celebrex painkiller to consumers after a study showed the drug more than doubled the risk of heart attacks when given in high doses.
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An Oregon man stopped taking the painkiller Vioxx when it was pulled from the market, switching to Bextra. Then questions were raised about Bextra &#151; and four other drugs &#151; and he returned to his doctor with a new set of worries. Similar conversations are happening between doctors and patients all around the country.
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For millions of Americans, the latest news is a great big pain in the neck, or maybe it&#39;s the shoulder. The Big Three of anti-inflammatory drugs - Vioxx, Celebrex and now Aleve - are believed to be potential health risks for patients.