Vioxx safety blasted by UK medical journal

The Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) - a medical publication in the UK - has concluded that Vioxx is so dangerous that it should not be prescribed at all. It says that there were "few, if any, situations" in which the whole class of drugs, known as Cox-2 drugs, should be prescribed rather than traditional painkillers such as aspirin.

Dr Ike Iheanacho, the editor of the journal says, "There's little convincing evidence to suggest that coxibs offer useful advantages over traditional NSAIDs in most situations. And with mounting evidence that coxibs may cause severe cardiovascular problems, it's hard to justify using these treatments in preference to the older drugs."

Vioxx and Bextra - the two biggest Cox-2 drugs - have been banned worldwide while Celebrex is the only one available, though with a black box warning.

Jane Tadman, a spokeswoman for The Arthritis Research Campaign says, "The DTB's conclusions that the benefits of cox-2s are marginal and outweighed by potential safety concerns could prove to be if not the final nail, then certainly another nail in the coffin of this controversial class of drugs. We know that some hospital departments are sufficiently concerned to have already taken their arthritis patients off cox-2s, and put them back on the older non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs."

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