Painkiller Bextra pulled from shelves

by Rocky Lore / Tech News Staff

Months after Pfizer temporarily pulled the arthritis drug Celebrex from its shelves because of an increased risk of heart attacks, the company has yanked another drug from distribution. On Thursday, the painkiller Bextra was taken off the market in the United States and the European Union. The Food and Drug Administration noted that users of a number of Bextra users had serious, sometimes fatal, skin reactions to the drug.

Bextra belongs in the class of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. Bextra is part of a class of NSAIDs known as a Cox-2 inhibitor. Cox-2 inhibitors were also used in another painkiller that received unwanted attention, Merck’s Vioxx. The Vioxx scare sparked interest in increasing awareness and safety of such medication.

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Merck wants Vioxx case dismissed

Merck wants Vioxx case dismissed

By Dan E. Way
Montgomery Advertiser

The Vioxx pills that an Alabama widow claims caused her husband's death Sept. 4, 2001, were not on the market until a half year later, attorneys for Merck Pharmaceutical said Tuesday in asking Clay County Circuit Court to dismiss the wrongful death case as bogus.

"This evidence demonstrates, at minimum, that plaintiff's claim is predicated on an impossibility," the motion contends in asking the judge to throw out the first U.S. trial involving the popular arthritis painkiller. Trial is scheduled for next month.

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