tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:51:20 +0000http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/noreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)Blogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111721978181290347Fri, 27 May 2005 18:32:00 +00002005-05-31T14:13:53.653-04:00Pfizer, the maker of now recalled Bextra (along with its sister drug Celebrex that carries a strong black box warning), which also markets the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, is being investigated by the FDA for possible linkage of Viagra and blindness. The FDA approved Viagra on March 27, 1998. Viagra is the first oral pill to treat impotence, a dysfunction that affects millions of men in http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/bextra-celebrex-maker-pfizer-again-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111694351536908456Tue, 24 May 2005 13:54:00 +00002005-05-24T10:05:15.376-04:00It appears that personal injury lawsuits against Merck, the maker of now recalled Vioxx, may exceed 100,000. This estimate was announced by the U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon, who is handling Vioxx litigation. While the number may appear to be huge, it is something that most analysts had expected considering that as many as 140,000 Americans have been injured, and of which, as many as http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/vioxx-recall-lawsuits-to-exceed-100000.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111681011529215943Mon, 23 May 2005 00:45:00 +00002005-05-22T21:01:55.316-04:00Recent controversy about the safety of pain medications for arthritis has left patients and health care professionals alike confused about which medications are safe to use. In fact, a recent survey by the Boston-based Rippe Lifestyle Institute indicated that many people with arthritis are suffering unnecessarily because they have stopped or reduced their use of pain relievers due to confusion http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/aleve-is-option-after-vioxx-bextra.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111660305972792587Fri, 20 May 2005 15:10:00 +00002005-05-20T11:30:59.753-04:00Pfizer is still adamant that Bextra is a safe drug and the FDA might have committed a grave mistake by banning it. This comes after the FDA found that Vioxx was not a safe drug either, and also put its strongest black box warning on Pfizer's other drug Celebrex. Julie Appleby of the American newspaper USA Today spoke to Pfizer's CEO Hank McKinnell about Bextra, drug prices, pharmaceutical http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/pfizer-defends-bextra-and-calls-it.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111651095464808146Thu, 19 May 2005 13:27:00 +00002005-05-19T09:59:26.993-04:00Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh has announced that the Public Forum on selective COX-2 inhibitor non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) will be held in Ottawa on June 9th and 10th, 2005. The FDA in the US held a similar panel in February this year and based on the deliberations, it decided to ban Bextra and put a black box warning on Celebrex. While Vioxx and Bextra have been http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/canada-panel-to-review-vioxx-celebrex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111642816728457791Wed, 18 May 2005 14:36:00 +00002005-05-18T10:56:07.290-04:00As was expected, after the recall of Bextra, Pfizer's other Cox-2 drug Celebrex has grabbed roughly a third of Bextra's prescriptions while Mobic, a pain reliever marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Abbott Laboratories Inc., has captured around 26%. For the week ended May 6, Celebrex picked up 34 percent of Bextra's prescriptions, according to Verispan, a market research company that trackshttp://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/bextra-recall-seems-to-help-celebrex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111625847699822778Mon, 16 May 2005 15:33:00 +00002005-05-16T11:47:57.006-04:00Should Merck have conducted more studies of cardiovascular risk of Vioxx? This is a central question regarding drug safety worldwide. And this issue was raised during recent hearings at the Capitol Hill. John E. Calfee, Ph.D. of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute tried to answer this question. Below are excerpts from his testimony.The clinical trials that provided the http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/more-studies-prior-to-vioxx-recall.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111581723630356052Wed, 11 May 2005 13:01:00 +00002005-05-11T09:13:56.426-04:00So while Merck has been shouting almost from the day of Vioxx recall that it wants to bring the drug back on the market, it appears that it is not alone. Now Pfizer, the maker of now recalled Bextra and Celebrex (which is still on the market but carries a strong black box warning), is also joining the game. The company says in a statement that "Pfizer continues to believe that Bextra could be an http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/bextra-recall-no-more-pfizer-says.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111564802067591054Mon, 09 May 2005 13:57:00 +00002005-05-09T10:14:23.976-04:00As the whole world watched in horror how Merck used aggressive marketing techniques to push Vioxx to unsuspecting users, Merck told a Congressional Committee that it is working to bring the drug back to market. It is estimated by the FDA that as many 140,000 Americans have been injured and as many as 50,000 Americans may be dead after taking vioxx. That death count "is the equivalent of the http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/merck-sold-vioxx-ruthlessly-prior-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111530511702960038Thu, 05 May 2005 14:44:00 +00002005-05-05T10:58:37.163-04:00The Board of Directors of Merck today announced its election of Richard Clark as the Company's CEO and president and a member of the Merck Board, effective immediately. This means that the current CEO, Raymond Gilmartin, who was scheduled to retire next year, is being asked to leave. Gilmartin has been widely criticized for keeping dangerous drugs like Vioxx on the market for years resulting inhttp://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/merck-ceo-quits-over-poor-handling-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111521376221239582Wed, 04 May 2005 13:17:00 +00002005-05-04T09:36:02.393-04:00Are Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, and other Cox-2 inhibitor drugs worth the risks?Preventing a stomach ulcer is not worth the added risk of having a heart attack, warns Dr. Byron Cryer, associate professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He is referring to the use of COX-2 inhibitors drugs marketed as Celebrex, Vioxx and Bextra, medications that were approved in the late 1990shttp://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/vioxx-recall-lawsuits-likely-to-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111513559728949162Tue, 03 May 2005 15:40:00 +00002005-05-03T11:53:17.293-04:00In an excellent article by Michael Scherer published on Mother Jones, one starts to get really worried about how dangerous the alliance between the FDA and the drug industry is. The article is really about Dr. David Graham who did his best to save American lives by speaking about the dangers of drugs like Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, Accutane, etc. But what the article really talks about how http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/fda-incapable-of-drug-safety-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111513103847410469Tue, 03 May 2005 14:15:00 +00002005-05-03T10:37:18.476-04:00One of the major controversy in the Vioxx recall drama is if Merck knew whether Vioxx was a dangerous drug. Merck continues to deny that it knew that Vioxx was killing people and claims that it recalled the drug as soon as it came to know that. Everybody else disagrees. Since the recall of Vioxx in September of last year, several disclosures have been made that clearly show that Merck may have http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/merck-hid-vioxx-dangers-prior-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111505432994670673Mon, 02 May 2005 16:59:00 +00002005-05-02T13:18:49.950-04:00Despite desperate attempts by Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx, to deny an Alabama widow the right to ask for damages for husband's death from Vioxx, the trial shall go forward. Judge Rochester ruled against a petition by Merck to dismiss a Vioxx lawsuit filed by the attorneys Beasley Allen on behalf of Cheryl Rogers (Circuit or State Court of Clay County in Ashland, Ala, case number CV 03-073, http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/05/vioxx-lawsuits-against-merck-to-go-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111463332674360561Wed, 27 Apr 2005 20:10:00 +00002005-04-27T16:22:06.750-04:00Over the past few months, millions of American arthritis sufferers have been forced to find alternatives to medication for their pain to avoid potentially deadly side effects. Soon after prescription medications Vioxx and Bextra were taken off the market for their potential cardiovascular and gastrointestinal health risks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned of similar risks associated http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/vioxx-bextra-recall-mean-new-pain.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111452094849353102Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:56:00 +00002005-04-26T09:09:08.496-04:00As expected, the drama in Vioxx lawsuits is getting ugly. Merck, a company that appears to come across as desperate in its behavior so far, started the media war first by accusing plaintiff Cheryl Rogers of being a liar. She is the widow of a man who died after taking Vioxx and her case is the first one to go on trial next month. While it has no technical implications on how other lawsuits turn http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/vioxx-recall-lawsuit-drama-begins-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111435473414156006Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:45:00 +00002005-04-24T10:58:54.146-04:00While Merck continues to deny any wrongdoing in personal injuries inflicted on 140,000 Americans from Vioxx and countless many in other countries (estimates not available), it is now becoming clear that Merck may have known as early as 2000 that Vioxx was killing people. Rather than doing something about it, Merck continued to market the drug aggressively to people who were least likely to be http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/merck-hid-risk-of-death-from-vioxx.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111409583001877285Thu, 21 Apr 2005 15:02:00 +00002005-04-21T11:03:50.026-04:00Since a Vioxx recall was announced on September 30, 2004, Merck has been bombarded with lawsuits from victims all over the world. The liabilities from Vioxx threaten Merck's survival as it continues to suffer from the impact of the drug recall. The company refuses to formally account for any potential liabilities. If it were to do so, its financial situation will look even worse. As part of its http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/vioxx-recall-lawsuits-update-by-merck.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111395823300500644Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:33:00 +00002005-04-19T20:51:06.296-04:00Bextra recall and black box warning on Celebrex has put Pfizer into deep financial trouble. Net income dropped to just $270 million in the first quarter of this year from $2.3 billion last year, a drop of 88%. The company says that $766 million of charges taken this quarter attributable to the suspension of sales of Bextra. It is important to point out that legal liabilities resulting from Bextrahttp://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/bextra-recall-hurts-pfizers-financial.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111395708054707328Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:23:00 +00002005-04-19T20:31:20.550-04:00As part of its quarterly earnings announcement, Pfizer answered a series of questions related to its drug portfolio. As expected, there is a complete section on its Cox-2 drugs, Bextra and Celebrex. After Bextra recall was announced and FDA asked the company to put a black box warning on Celebrex, analysts have been deeply concerned about Pfizer's ability to survive the legal battles.One of thehttp://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/pfizer-response-on-bextra-and-celebrex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111395189800055155Tue, 19 Apr 2005 22:50:00 +00002005-04-19T19:04:58.006-04:00Smokers may want to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) such as aspirin or ibuprofen as well, according to research reported the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. “The use of NSAIDs among smokers protected against oral cancer development,” said Dr. Jon Sudbø, a cancer researcher from the Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway, and lead author on the http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/nsaid-increase-risk-of-heart-attacks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111360043743707078Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:09:00 +00002005-04-15T17:27:17.440-04:00In one of the first Vioxx lawsuits to go on trial, Merck argued that Cheryl Rogers, widow of Howard Rogers (who passed away at the young age of 42) after taking Vioxx, was a liar. Merck argued that Howard Rogers never took Vioxx since the bottles that Cheryl Rogers has presented as evidence of his taking the drug show that that specific batch of the drug was made months after her husband died. (http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/vioxx-bextra-recall-lawsuits-move-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111358030126152673Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:37:00 +00002005-04-15T11:51:41.266-04:00Patients taking the arthritis drug celecoxib (Celebrex) have a similar risk of heart attacks and stroke as those taking the withdrawn drug rofecoxib (Vioxx), according to a new study by the New Zealand Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme (IMMP). A recent decision by the FDA banned Bextra but Celebrex only got a black box warning despite calls from numerous quarters for a recall of Celebrex http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/bextra-recall-insufficient-celebrex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111340515068920468Wed, 13 Apr 2005 15:00:00 +00002005-04-13T11:53:01.080-04:00Vioxx and Bextra class action lawsuits are not limited to the United States. Since Pfizer is a truly global company and almost all of its drugs are sold worldwide, the implications of Bextra recall are global as well. As Bextra related lawsuits are being filed here at home, our next-door neighbors are doing the same. Toronto law firm McPhadden Samac Merner Barry has launched a national class http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/bextra-recall-lawsuits-filed-in-canada.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9188326.post-111340188719347662Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:08:00 +00002005-04-13T10:18:07.200-04:00Michigan is the only state in the United States that has robbed its residents of the right to ask for compensation if a drug company makes defective drugs. The idea initially was to make the state "business friendly" but the net result is that thousands of victims of Vioxx and Bextra (and many other drugs) have no legal rights to sue drugmakers. Texas also has some laws that make it extremely http://www.mynippon.com/vioxx/2005/04/bextra-recall-prompts-michigan-law.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (eCreativa Media)