WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's largest health management organization is considering changing how it prescribes Vioxx after a government study showed that high doses of the arthritis drug tripled patients' risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death.
The study compared the outcomes of 40,405 Kaiser Permanente patients who took Pfizer's Celebrex and 26,748 patients who were prescribed Merck & Co. (MRK)'s Vioxx. The results of the Food and Drug Administration's research were presented Wednesday at an epidemiology conference in France.
Heart attack rates tripled for patients taking Vioxx in doses higher than 25 milligrams per day, according to the study. Lower doses of the drug also increased the risk of a heart attack, "but not significantly so," the study indicated.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040826/D84N4PS00.html
