Vioxx medication withdrawn....

[carole]

I just saw the news this morning and got quite a fright to see this medication has been withdrawn, I have been taking it for a few years now, luckily I only take maybe 3 to five pills per mth, they now are saying it can contribute to a heart attack or stroke, GEEZ thanks a lot, well I will have to ring my GP and get something else, this will be a real let down for alot of people who get good results from the drug,hopefully they can offer something as good.

[aly]

I've taken it too, but thankfully it was only recently that I was put on it The news stories about it have been scaring me!

[carole]

I know Aly me too, however i think because i have not been on it daily as some people would be, hopefully i have done no damage, but i have been on it for some years, it makes you mad, why do they always find these things out later, trouble is , it was a really good medication , with minimal side effects.

[kingrattus]

My Pharmacy co-workers (I'm in the post office in the other side of the store) & they were talking to me about it. They r making a list off all their customers who r on it & r gonna be calling them up & asking them to go to their Dr. ASAP & get their meds changed NOW!!

John (hes the head pharmacist) was shocked when he heard about it... I was chatting to him about his surgery next week early this morning. & one of the other lower pharmaciest came in & told him & he did that double take look. He wasn't too happy & wants ALL his customers off it NOW.

Poor John has so much work to do now.

I was shocked they didn't do more testes on it before releasing it into the public. John said they didn't even check for respotory problems at all, only heart problems... Stupid Scientests not doing their jobs right... tisk tisk tisk...

[carole]

Yes well I was shocked to hear that as well, i believe it has only been out for about 4 yrs and I have been on it for about 3, I can only hope because I took such a small amt per mth, and not on a daily basis I have not been put at risk, what I will beable to go on now I don't know , for me Vioxx was wonderful, I was able to take care of three different types of pain all with one pill, so it was very advantageous for me to take, I really feel for those who were on it daily for severe arthritis pain, they will now be suffering poor people.

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

I take it for back pain, and so far haven't heard anything from my doctor here who prescribed it!! If it wasn't for PT I would not even have known!

Thanks Carole!

[lynnestankard]

A friend spotted the article in her morning paper and phoned me straight away, knowing I'm on Vioxx. To say I was gobsmacked was putting it mildly. I've been taking it for 3 years too Carole - but daily.
About 2 hours later I had a phone call from my doctor asking me if I'd heard the news?!! How about that for service?
His advice - come off it NOW. I have to go in next week and start the search again - (it took 18 months to discover Vioxx and that it suited me) for a really good anti-inflammatory that will help with my arthritis - oh dam it to hell - I'm really fed up!


Lynne

[mugsy]

I knew about what happens when you're on Vioxx about 5 years ago. I was taking it, and then a fellow teacher went into congestive heart failure and almost died. I stopped taking it.....

[Pam]

Originally posted by mugsy
I knew about what happens when you're on Vioxx about 5 years ago. I was taking it, and then a fellow teacher went into congestive heart failure and almost died. I stopped taking it.....

I had heard a lot of talk about Vioxx as well before this came out. I have been on Bextra for some arthritis in my neck although I don't take it daily. It supposedly is the same sort of drug as Vioxx but considered 'safe.' To tell you the truth I am going to go back to Advil or one of the ibuprofen medicines now to handle the pain. As recently as last month I had a doctor in the ER wanting to give me Vioxx for a knee injury. I told him *No Thank You* because I of what I had been reading about Vioxx. He looked at me like I had three heads. It's too bad when the patients know more than the doctors.

[carole]

To be honest I had read on the internet about 3 wks before this came on the news, that it could contribute to heart attacks and strokes, and I was feeling anxious about that, but thought considering I take so little my risk is low, but now I will not beable to take them, I have one more pill left, I don't think it will hurt to use it, if any harm has been done, one more won't make any darn difference.

It really is such a shame, it is such a great drug, because all other inflammatory drugs often cause stomach ulcers and vioxx did not, I believe they will be checking out celebrex and another drug I forget the name of, no doubt their risks will be the same or similar.

Lynne I really feel for you and others who are taking it for arthritis, I have some arthritis, an underlying condition from another condition, but it was not my main reason for taking it.

[smokey the elder]

King Rattus, please don't diss scientists. We do the best we can within the constraints. At the end of the day, it was the FDA which approved this stuff.

I've been following this for awhile, and suspected that there would be some changes coming down the pike. But I expected a "black box warning", not a withdrawal. Merck probably thought it would be cheaper in the long run to pull the drug than fight lawsuits. Also, there are tons of painkillers out there, from aspirin, Advil and Tylenol over the counter to Celebrex and Mobic for prescription offerings.

I feel bad for those who successfully took Vioxx and now have to find another alternative.

ANY drug can have harmful effects! That's why people have to have a good dialog with their MD and their pharmacist.

[moosmom]

I took Vioxx for plantar fascitis, (heal spur). It worked. But I found out about the drawbacks and stopped. I'm glad they took it off the shelves. Geez, you'd think they'd found out about this earlier.

[lizzielou742]

Hey guys, I wanted to bump this back up because I saw this article today and thought it was pretty darn scary.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...merck_vioxx_dc

Merck Should Have Pulled Vioxx in 2000 - Study

Thu Nov 4, 7:24 PM ET

By Tom Armitage

BERNE (Reuters) - U.S. drugs giant Merck & Co Inc. should have pulled its Vioxx painkiller from the market four years ago because data showing it raised the risk of heart attacks has existed since 2000, Swiss scientists said on Friday.

In a report for British medical journal The Lancet, researchers at the University of Berne said there was substantial evidence of the dangerous side effects of the drug by the end of 2000, but the mounting data was not analyzed properly.

"Our findings indicate that rofecoxib (Vioxx) should have been withdrawn several years earlier," the scientists said.

Merck did not recall Vioxx, a COX-2 inhibitor taken by about 20 million Americans, from the worldwide market until five weeks ago.

Merck said in a statement it "was vigilant in monitoring and disclosing the cardiovascular safety of Vioxx and we absolutely disagree with any implication to the contrary." The company said it also disagrees with the conclusion that the drug should have been withdrawn several years ago.

"The company could and should have made the statement several years back, when the data we analyzed were readily available," Matthias Egger, a professor at the university's department for Social and Preventative Medicine, told a news conference.

Merck said the data contained in the Swiss analysis are not new and are essentially consistent with combined analyzes of clinical trials that the company had previously published.

The Swiss research follows newspaper reports earlier this week that Merck had tried to fight mounting concerns about the drug's safety in order to protect sales.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently published a study estimating that Vioxx could have caused about 28,000 heart attacks or deaths since it was approved in 1999.

Merck's shares have slumped around 40 percent since the recall, and analysts estimate that it could face a bill of between $10 billion and $15 billion in litigation.

INDEPENDENT EVALUATION

The Swiss scientists performed a meta-analysis on the data, taking in results from past studies, some of which were available on the FDA Web site. They found that patients who took Vioxx were at greater risk even after a few months, regardless of how much of the drug was taken.

Using 18 randomized controlled trials and 11 observational studies, researchers saw that heart-attack risk more than doubled when Vioxx was taken.

By the end of 2000, 52 heart attacks had occurred in 20,742 patients, the researchers said. Of these, 41 were patients using Vioxx. The increased heart-attack risks became apparent in studies that were evaluated by external watchdogs.

"It could be that without independent evaluation of the data, the assessment of adverse effects is biased so that the risks of a drug appear smaller," Egger said.

"We therefore recommend that all studies be carried out with independent external data evaluation."

Drug licensing authorities should review their procedures, the study concluded, to ensure that data released after the drug launch is analyzed for signs of side effects.

The authors also said an independent panel of experts should investigate why manufacturers and licensing authorities did not evaluate the data available on Vioxx sooner.

In an editorial in the journal, editor Richard Horton criticized both Merck and the FDA, saying they acted out of "ruthless, short-sighted, and irresponsible self interest."

"The licensing of Vioxx and its continued use in the face of unambiguous evidence of harm have been public-health catastrophes," said Horton.

"This controversy will not end with the drug's withdrawal."

Shares of Merck closed down 3 percent at $27.02 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The study was part of a wider investigation into anti-inflammatory drugs and their side effects conducted by the University of Berne on behalf of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Full results are due mid-2006.

[smokey the elder]

Merck is in deep doo-doo.

[carole]

Gosh this makes my blood boil, 2000 is probably about the time I started taking vioxx, come to think of it, the two times I have had my blood pressure taken recently , it was up and borderline, I put it down to one being sick at the time and two I have put on some weight, but now I am beginning to wonder.

I have recently been changed to Arcoxcia, a drug not used yet or approved in the USA, so I read on the internet, I find it good, but it too is going to be reviewed, so who knows what it will do, I am still waiting for Merck to re-imburse me my 48 dollars for the visit, they sure are taking their time.