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A clinical trial led by Monash University found that the common diabetes drug metformin significantly reduced knee pain in people with osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity, potentially delaying the need for knee replacements. Over six months, participants taking metformin experienced greater pain relief than those on placebo, offering a promising, low-cost alternative treatment. ======================================================================== Metformin may reduce knee pain in overweight patients with osteoarthritis, offering a low-cost alternative to early knee replacement surgery, according to a Monash University trial. A widely used diabetes medication may help relieve knee osteoarthritis (OA) pain in people who are overweight or obese, potentially delaying...

Latest news reports of a cluster of ivermectin overdoses in Oklahoma were debunked by the hospital. Not one such case. The doctor who fabricated the story hadn’t work there in two months.On February 4, 2021, Merck, which is readying release of its new COVID-19 treatment drug, molnupiravir, issued a press release about that new drug’s competition, ivermectin.1 Merck itself had developed ivermectin, now off-patent, for human use, securing FDA approval in 1987, and distributed most of its 3.7 billion doses safely used worldwide since.2-4 It was thus curious that Merck’s press release about use of ivermectin for COVID expressed “a...

It is the job of our good friends at the US Food and Drug Administration to give the OK — or not — on what we put into our bodies. Unfortunately, their decision-making process has proven to be not as much of an exact science it should be. In fact, the FDA has made some pretty huge blunders that have ended in irreparable damage and even death. Here are just a few disastrous FDA mistakes that unleashed harmful drugs into the market. Quaaludes were a sedative and hypnotic used as a sleeping aid between 1962 and 1985. They were, in...

A Texas appeals court has scrapped a $26 million verdict against the drugmaker Merck stemming from the first trial involving its once popular painkiller Vioxx.

The Vioxx Settlement - A Lesson in Corporate Risk Management Written by Rick Vassar Published November 12, 2007 On November 9, 2007, Merck announced that it was settling approximately 27,000 lawsuits arising from the sale and distribution of Vioxx. At the time it was approved by the FDA in May 1999, Vioxx, a Cox-2 inhibitor, was hailed as a breakthrough in pain management. The data that indicated that Vioxx led to an increased chance of heart attack and stroke was evident from the start. As early as April 2000, the FDA expressed concern, and it pressed Merck to add warnings...

Seeking to recoup tens of millions spent by government-financed health programs on prescriptions for Vioxx, New York State and New York City joined yesterday in filing a lawsuit against Merck, the drug’s maker, which withdrew the painkiller from the market in 2004 because of dangerous side effects. The lawsuit, filed yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses Merck & Company of intentionally concealing the dangers of Vioxx, and therefore defrauding the state Medicaid program, which paid for the prescriptions. The drug was used to treat arthritis and migraines but led to a high risk of heart attacks and strokes....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in New Orleans threw out a Vioxx victory for Merck, citing misrepresentation by a key company witness and clearing the way for a third trial in the case of a widow who charges that the painkiller caused her husband's fatal heart attack. ADVERTISEMENT U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon on Tuesday granted Evelyn Irvin Plunkett's motion for a new trial and vacated a jury judgment in favor of Merck (NYSE:MRK - News) "due to a misrepresentation by one of Merck's primary witnesses that prevented Ms. Plunkett from fully and fairly presenting her case." Fallon,...

Merck & Co Inc.'s successor to the recalled pain reliever Vioxx should not be approved, a U.S. advisory panel ruled on Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration's panel of outside experts voted 20-1 against recommending clearance for the drug, called Arcoxia. The agency is not required to follow panel recommendations but usually does. Merck said it expects a final FDA decision on Arcoxia by month's end. The company had argued Arcoxia was as safe as other pain relievers on the market and would be a valuable alternative for arthritis patients who do not respond well to current options. Panel members,...

Much attention has been focused on the cardiovascular risks posed by Vioxx and other so-called cox-2 inhibitors in recent years, so the American Heart Association provided an important service this week by reminding us that many other painkillers have risks associated with them. The association spelled out gradations of cardiovascular risk and recommended a step-by-step approach — starting with nonmedicinal remedies — that doctors should follow when treating joint and ligament pain. The scientific statement applies specifically to patients who already have or are at risk of heart disease and also need relief from pain — whether caused by short-term...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers criticized the Food and Drug Administration's monitoring of the risks of the antibiotic Ketek (Sanofi-Aventis) and some other prescription drugs on Tuesday. At a hearing on the FDA's drug safety oversight, lawmakers said the agency stifled dissent about the risks of drugs when top managers disagreed. They cited problems with Ketek, Vioxx (Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn arthritis drug) and antidepressants made by several companies. "With each of these drugs, it appears that the FDA is not seriously questioning whether the risks outweigh the benefits of the new drug," said Rep. Bart Stupak (news, bio,...

(AP) LOS ANGELES A hung jury has forced a mistrial in lawsuits by two men who blamed their heart attacks on Merck & Co.'s once-popular painkiller Vioxx. The two cases were tried together before a Los Angeles jury that deadlocked when they reached the third question on a lengthy verdict form. The jury did answer "yes" to the first two questions, finding that Vioxx did have potential risks or side-effects that were known or knowable and that they presented a substantial danger to users of Vioxx. The third question asked if the plaintiffs' physicians would have recognized the potential risks...

New Orleans -- Thousands of federal lawsuits claiming the drug Vioxx caused heart attacks and other conditions that killed or injured people cannot be pooled into one national class action, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon, who was appointed to deal with pretrial matters for all federal suits involving Merck & Co.'s withdrawn painkiller, did not rule on the possibility of separate class-actions suits for each state and the District of Columbia.

Studies raise new concern about other medications ASSOCIATED PRESS Worried that your painkiller could trigger a heart attack or dangerous stomach bleeding? New reports on painkiller risks, based on reviews of dozens of studies including hundreds of thousands of patients, indicate most patients should try naproxen, an older anti-inflammatory drug. Experts say it doesn't raise heart attack or stroke risk -- a major worry for older people -- and naproxen is inexpensive because generic versions have been around for years. Available over the counter, it's taken by millions of Americans. The drawback is that like most painkillers, it can irritate...

Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK - news) on Thursday suffered a double setback when a federal jury awarded $51 million to a former user of its withdrawn pain medicine Vioxx, and a New Jersey judge threw out a Vioxx verdict that had favored the drug maker and ordered a new trial. The news sent its shares down 5.7 percent, and evened the score between Merck and plaintiffs in Vioxx cases at four victories apiece. The company is facing at least 14,200 other lawsuits from people who say they were harmed by the drug, but Merck vowed to continue defending itself on...

LOS ANGELES - A California jury on Wednesday found pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. not liable for causing an elderly man's heart ailments after he took the drug maker's once-popular painkiller Vioxx. After deliberating several hours in California's first trial over Vioxx, the 12-person jury determined that Merck was not negligent, did not conceal information and that the drug did not cause Stewart Grossberg's health problems. Grossberg, 71, had sought compensatory and punitive damages, as well $214,000 for medical bills. The drug maker faces more than 16,000 lawsuits involving Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in 2004 after a...

Eighteen months. Ever since Merck pulled its arthritis painkiller Vioxx off the market in September 2004 on evidence that it could cause strokes or heart attacks, the company and its lawyers have stood by the premise that it was dangerous only to patients who took it for at least 18 months. So it was news last week when prominent medical experts said that new data from Merck indicated that Vioxx's risks started to emerge after only four months of use. The controversy is the latest illustration of how widely open to interpretation and potential corporate pressure the results of clinical...

ASSOCIATED PRESS TRENTON, N.J. – Unpublished data from the Merck & Co. study that led the drugmaker to halt sales of Vioxx appear to show the blockbuster painkiller raised the risk of heart attack and stroke within just a few months – not after at least 18 months' use, as Merck has consistently argued. The company disputed that Thursday, saying it is “not scientifically appropriate” to draw conclusions based on a key graph in a 108-page report on the data. The news, first reported by National Public Radio, comes after prominent doctors said Merck misrepresented other data from the same...

Merck & Co. Inc. is seeking to sever the cases of two plaintiffs that a judge plans to try together in the Vioxx trial set to begin Monday in Atlantic City. While both plaintiffs allege to have suffered heart attacks after taking the drug for more than two years before, the drug maker argues that the facts, witness testimony and scientific and marketing evidence presented by each would confuse jurors to Merck's disadvantage. Merck's lawyers say the "threshold difference ... has to do with the length of each man's Vioxx usage." They argue that plaintiff Thomas Cona's pharmaceutical records show...

See this thread first, for example.\ A jury has just now cleared Merck They said its Cox-2 drug will work Sing, "Vioxx for pain!" And here's the refrain: "A class action lawyer's a jerk"

NEW ORLEANS (AP) Jurors have cleared Merck & Co. of responsiblity for the death of a Florida man in the first federal case involving its once popular painkiller Vioxx .