BMJ  2005;330:440 (26 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7489.440

News

FDA advisers warn: COX 2 inhibitors increase risk of heart attack and stroke

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

After three days of deliberation an advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration decided that the widely used cyclo-oxygenase-2 (COX 2) inhibitors rofecoxib (Vioxx), celecoxib (Celebrex), and valdecoxib (Bextra) all carry serious risks of heart attack and stroke and recommended that the FDA demand that the drugs carry "black box" warnings. But the panel did not recommend that the drugs be withdrawn from the market.

The panel was convened after Merck voluntarily withdrew rofecoxib (Vioxx) from the market on 30 September ( BMJ 2004;329: 816[Free Full Text], 9 Oct) when it was found that the drug doubles the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients who take it for 18 months or longer.

US media coverage of the panel's findings has been criticised by Dr Alastair Wood, the panel's chairman and associate dean at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville. He said that the coverage . . . [Full text of this article]

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