Today, each and every drug in market has some or other side effects and few drugs can even cause life threatening side effects. Whenever a new drug is introduced in market, doctors and other physicians will evaluate its efficacy and the possible side effects, based on which the drug will be prescribed for patients after duly taking the patient s condition into consideration.

Recently, the manufacturer found out the high risk of side effects and after few impending risks between Vioxx and heart disease the drug was withdrawn from market.

Many painkillers that have anti-inflammatory and non-steroid compositions are available freely over the counter for many years without prescriptions and the brand names such as ibuprofen and naproxen fall under this category.

These drugs were marketed with a warning that indicate possible stomach ulcer and other related problems as side effects. This is due to the presence of COX (cyclooxygenase) inhibitors as a base composition of the drug and this will inhibit or prevent an important enzyme production by name COX-1 that is responsible for your stomach lining protection. So in the absence of the COX-1, the protective mechanism, you tend to develop stomach ulcers.

This made researchers to do certain extensive research and came out with a new pain reliever product that effectively blocked COX-2 enzyme and not COX-1, thus making it safe for use without the side effect risk of stomach ulcers. However, it was found that COX-2 enzyme effectively blocked production of an anti-clotting agent namely prostaglandin, and when the effects of Vioxx and heart disease started surfacing in market, the manufacturer added additional warnings on the label of the drug.

Further to the additional added warning on the label, the manufacturer also confirmed to FDA that this relatively new found risk of Vioxx, and heart disease was in fact restricted to groups that fall under high risk category of coronary events, and it is very safe for use under a physician s guidance on people who doesn t carry any risk.

Withdrawal of From Market

When a detailed study was further pushed on the lines of identifying the relationship between Vioxx and heart disease on patients who have had heart disease history, it was found that the usage increased the risk manifold and it even went up to four times.

Besides this finding, the New England Journal of Medicine also in its editorial column claimed and accused the manufacturer for knowing the exact risk effects of Vioxx and heart disease and this has made the manufacturer to come out with additional warnings printed on labels.

Despite the warnings, the increased incidents of those taking Vioxx and heart disease events such as stroke and heart attacks made the manufacturer to withdraw the Vioxx drug from the market finally in the year 2005, nearly after six years of its launch in the market.

Many detailed studies and research findings that linked Vioxx and heart disease cropped up on a regular basis and this made the company to get caught in many legal tangles. Many people who have had history of coronary events and took Vioxx and landed in complications filed lawsuits against the manufacturer by duly pointing to the direct relationship between Vioxx and heart disease.

[tags]New Drugs, Vioxx, Added Risks, Enzymes[/tags]