OT: Merck Announces Withdrawl of Vioxx Painkiller

[Guest guest]

Merck Announces Withdrawl of Vioxx Painkiller

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/30/business/30WIRE-MERK.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company is pulling its

blockbuster arthritis drug

Vioxx from the market worldwide because new data from a clinical trial found an

increased risk of

heart attack and stroke.

Whitehouse Station-based Merck said Thursday that data from the trial showed the

increased risk of

heart attack and other cardiovascular complications began 18 months after

patients started taking

Vioxx.

The data comes from a three-year study aimed at showing that Vioxx at a 25

milligram dose prevents

recurrence of polyps in the colon and rectum. The trial was

stopped after Merck discovered the higher heart risk compared to patients taking

dummy pills.

[Guest guest]

This, like many issues in health care is totally predictable and

illustrates the intellectual bankruptcy of modern medical

pseudoscience.

All NSAID's prevent the growth of new blood vessels, called

neovascularization.

Neovascularization is necessary for tumors to grow, anything that

reduces it also reduces tumor growth.

Neovascularization is also necessary for the heart to make up for

microscopically blocked vessels, which happens all the time. Reduced

neovascularization means more heart attacks.

Diabetics go blind and have kidney failure as a result of

neovascularization gone wild, and have heart attacks as a result of

inadequate neovascularization. This is an essential process and

pushing the balance around will affect a lot of different things.

I'm surprised Merck freaked out and pulled the stuff.

Unfortunately nutritional supplement makers and colleges of

naturopathic medicine are blithely ignorant of this issue as well, they

promote stuffing tons of copper down people for no apparent reason and

this promotes neovascularization. They really love to give diabetics

copper, and lots of diabetics are going blind a few months after

starting their " eye vitamins " now.

It is truly unfortunate that the culture of modern medicine seems to

include a prohibition against actually applying all these well known

basic principles to understanding clinically relevant situations.

Andy. . . . . . . .

>

> NEW YORK (AP) -- Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Company is pulling its

blockbuster arthritis drug

> Vioxx from the market worldwide because new data from a clinical trial found

an increased risk of

> heart attack and stroke.

>

> Whitehouse Station-based Merck said Thursday that data from the trial showed

the increased risk of

> heart attack and other cardiovascular complications began 18 months after

patients started taking

> Vioxx.

>

> The data comes from a three-year study aimed at showing that Vioxx at a 25

milligram dose prevents

> recurrence of polyps in the colon and rectum. The trial was

> stopped after Merck discovered the higher heart risk compared to

patients taking dummy pills.

[Guest guest]

I'm surprised Merck freaked out

Actually this is a pretty typical old trick that a corporation in the

" sand-bagging " mode pulls in the eleventh hour. Class actions don't happen in a

closet, and it's a given that class-action lawyers were hot on the trail of

Vioxx and it was only a matter of time. Gilmartin made a classic pre-emptive PR

move. Most Americans are left with the perception that Merck is totally

concerned for the well-being of people.

If you monitored the instant media today the big news wasn't anything about a

lethal drug finally biting the dust. You may have noticed that the media almost

without exception by-passed the human side of the withdrawl. There were no

horror stories of widows or widowers losing their lifemate to Vioxx on the

television. All I got was the term " long standing concerns " .

The big news was the $26 billion dollars that poor Merck lost in the investment

racket aside from the $1.8 billion loss in annual Vioxx sales.

Merck knows that they are in for a whirlwind of product liability suits and it

was impossible for them to keep the lid on Vioxx problems any longer. Their

announcement to withdrawl Vioxx stole the thunder from a class action suit

against the drug that was announced a little later.