Well, sounds now like the problem with Vioxx may also be extended to other drugs in that family: Celebrex and Bextra. And just when we thought we had some good substitutes.

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"Other Vioxx-type drugs may increase heart risks

By Marilynn Marchione
AP Medical Writer

The arthritis drug Vioxx may not be the only drug of its type that raises the risk of heart attack and stroke, scientists suggest in a report released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
That's contrary to what federal regulators said when the blockbuster pain reliever was pulled from the market last week.

Studies done five years ago when Pfizer's Celebrex and Merck & Co.'s Vioxx were approved suggest that the same mechanism that inhibits inflammation and makes the drugs easier on the stomach than traditional painkillers also blocks a substance that prevents heart problems, said Dr. Garret FitzGerald, a University of Pennsylvania cardiologist who led the studies.

"I believe this is a class effect," meaning that the problem also applies to Celebrex and Pfizer's newer, similar drug, Bextra, which remain on the market.

He called on the federal Food and Drug Administration to change its advice to patients and doctors to reflect the new safety concerns.

Pfizer's medical director, Dr. Gail Cawkwell, insisted that its drugs are safe. She said "there is no evidence" of increased risk of heart problems among the 75 million Americans who have taken Celebrex. Long-term studies are not available on Bextra, which was approved in 2001.

"There's a good prostaglandin and a bad prostaglandin as far as the heart is concerned," FitzGerald said.

Suppressing both, as older painkillers like aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS do, helps the heart. But shutting down just the "good" one raises the risk of high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries and clotting, he said. "