The US Food and Drug Administration has barred one of its own experts from serving on the panel considering the safety of cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX 2) inhibitors after he made remarks indicating that valdecoxib (Bextra) may—like rofecoxib (Vioxx), which was recently withdrawn from the market by Merck—cause heart attacks and strokes.

Dr Curt Furberg, a member of the FDA's drug safety advisory committee and a prominent authority on drug safety, was told his invitation to participate in FDA hearings on the safety of COX 2 inhibitors had been rescinded. This followed his being quoted in the New York Times on 10 November as saying that a study that he and his …