Dr. Mercola April 12 2007 17,936 views
An FDA advisory panel is meeting to review the arthritis medication Arcoxia and vote on whether it is safe and effective.
However, the panel includes three doctors with financial ties to the drug industry, even though it is meeting less than a month after the FDA proposed a stricter conflict-of-interest policy for outside experts.
The panel is not bound by the tougher rules because they have not been officially adopted yet, but many have criticized the FDA's actions and say that the rules should have been followed anyway.
Arcoxia, a medication developed by Merck as a replacement for the withdrawn and discredited Vioxx, may be just as risky for your heart as the older drug. Concerns about cardiovascular safety forced Merck to stop selling Vioxx in September 2004.
Arcoxia has been marketed as a safer compound, but critics point out that Merck's largest trial of Arcoxia simply showed that it has the same heart risks as a drug called diclofenac. Some research indicates that diclofenac may be as risky to the heart as the lower marketed dose of Vioxx.
Drug trials comparing Arcoxia with naproxen found a 60 percent to 70 percent higher risk of cardiovascular events with Arcoxia.
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
You might remember that this is history repeating itself as two years ago Vioxx was reapproved by the FDA advisory committe that was loaded with panel members with drug company ties. It should become obvious to you by now that massive conflict of interest is the rule, not the exception, at the FDA.
Now pressure has been mounting at the FDA to reconsider Arcoxia, based on growing concerns by some medical experts who have dubbed it the son of Vioxx.
But in one more case of stacking the deck in favor of the drug company cartel, the FDA has allowed doctors with conflicts of interest to serve on the advisory committee, something expressly forbidden in new rules levied by the agency itself.
Although these rules are not technically in effect yet, this move demonstrates the agency's insincerity in passing them in the first place. This shows, once again, how the agency still protects the industry it regulates.
It's also somewhat ironic that it was the massive conflicts of interest involved in an advisory committee's voting on Vioxx, Bextra and Celebrex more than two years ago that led to these new rules being proposed in the first place. So far, at least, little has apparently changed, and you shouldn't lower your guard one tiny bit when it comes to trusting the purported safety of a drug.
Another reminder, you don't need a toxic drug to treat your pain when there are many alternatives that are just as effective and safer for your health.
Related Articles:
Merck's Newest Pain-Killing Alternative to Vioxx My FDA Hero Blows the Whistle on Another Vioxx-Like Drug Stay Away From New Merck Painkiller
Merck's Newest Pain-Killing Alternative to Vioxx
My FDA Hero Blows the Whistle on Another Vioxx-Like Drug
Stay Away From New Merck Painkiller
Ho-Hum No need to panic.
The FDA has tried this same maneuver many many times.
We have never been as prepared to kill it as we have this time anyway.
It’s dead!
Not that we don’t need to watch as they are criminals, but have a little faith please!
I say let’s get the war started if it comes down to something like that. I am talking about clubs, torches, and pitchforks! And it would happen or this is not the USA!
The bill refers to compounding pharmacies and is being pushed by the pharmaceutical companies. The pharma companies are concerned that there is a lot of illegal compounding of its prescription drugs going on in the marketplace. The bill actually is unnecessary because FDA has the authority to pursue compounding pharmacies that are producing unapproved new drugs but the agency does not have the resources to pursue these pharmacies and have generally left it to the individual state pharmacy boards to enforce.
The proposed law would most definitely clarify FDA's jurisdiction but I am not sure if it will have much of a practical effect because of a resources issue. As you know, Congress likes to pass laws but does not always provide the additional funding necessary to enforce it. I have some mix feelings about publicly making a lot of hay of this issue. One is that FDA, in reality, already has jurisdiction over this issue if it so chooses to use it, thereby, it would call unnecessary attention to pharmacies that are compounding natural hormone products.
Thank you Dr. Mercola for pointing this out! We must change the face of medicine and quickly!
It is a real shame that in our medical system we can’t at least “borrow” some of the wisdom of the Chinese in formulating so many safe and health promoting formulas for the pains (and healing at the same time) of arthritis and other complications.
As a working Clinical / TCM Herbalist I saw people every day with serious arthritis. It broke my heart to see the pain and suffering these mostly older people were putting up with and still smiling!
Many were suffering with not only arthritis, but with complications from steroids that were the arthritis protocol from there doctors. I tried many things and these two arthritis treatments have had very good results.
There are many other common household things that can help. One of my favorites is Ginger! Externally (as a hand , foot, or full bath) or internally in capsules.