Vioxx and other NSAIDs Found to be a Cause of Heart Attacks and Strokes.

Recently a published study found that the popular arthritis pain-killer, Vioxx, may have caused as many as 140,000 heart attacks and strokes in the US since its introduction into use in 1999. The pharmaceutical company, Merck, “voluntarily” withdrew Vioxx from the market in September amid a storm of news reports and congressional testimony by FDA officials. In December another Cox-2 inhibitor, Pfizer's Celebrex, was found to potentially triple the risk of heart attacks and stroke, although because of some contradictory studies this drug has not been withdrawn from the market. These drugs are in a class of drugs known as Cox-2 inhibitors. Cox-2 inhibitors were thought to be a safer alternative for the treatment of chronic inflammation than traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which may cause gastrointestinal bleeding and stomach ulcers. However, Cox-2 inhibitors have been found to suppress the formation of prostaglandin I-2, which functions to promote dilation of blood vessels and inhibition of platelet aggregation.

Now two new studies suggest that huge numbers of people may have been put at risk by taking Cox-2 inhibitors. The first, published online in The Lancet on January 25, 2005, suggests that Vioxx could have caused between 88,000 and 140,000 extra cases of serious coronary heart disease in the US. Researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed data from 1.4 million patients in California, who had used NSAIDs from 1999 to September 2004. They found that individuals taking Vioxx had a 34% higher chance of coronary heart disease compared with people taking other NSAIDs. A second study indicated that 63% of the growth in the use of Cox-2 inhibitors in the US was in patients who were at low risk of GI side effects, who should not have been prescribed the drugs in the first place. Researchers examined records from two national databases, which tracked patient visits to their doctor between 1999 and 2002.

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