[OT] Vioxx taken off the market

For any of you old fogeys (or, like me,
rapidly-approaching-middle-age-with-some-bumps-and-bruises-along-the-way-
fogeys), heads up. It appears that Merck has taken Vioxx off the market
amid concerns about cardiovascular complications - increased risk of
stroke and heart attack in an 18-month study of cancer patients. I have
to believe the risk extends beyond the limited field of chemo patients
because Vioxx accounts for about 10% of Merck's sales - something like
$2.5B per year - and they're doing this world-wide and NOT because the
FDA or another country's regulatory agency is making them do it. I
suspect that this cancer study made them go look at all the informal and
anecdotal info they had and haven't released. They probably realized
that if/when the FDA started the process to withdraw approval all that
would become public, exposing them to risk of big fines and sanctions.
So they did it first, to take the sting out a bit.

Anyway, I've been taking this stuff for over two years and it's worked
great for my L5-S1 disc injury. Time to call your docs and get a
substitute 'scrip.

Here's the CNN story:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/30/news/fortune500/merck/index.htm

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net