Merck's comeuppance continues

February 6, 2007

Merck's comeuppance continues Reporting on others' woes and misery never gives me pleasure. But reporting on the continuing woes of a pharmaceutical company ALWAYS warms my heart. That pleasure is tempered only by the fact that more often than not, it takes the pain of real people to put drug makers to any sort of pain themselves. And such is the bittersweet case today. On the one hand, I'm loathe to report that yet again, some unwitting subjects in a drug trial have been given a hard time of it by yet another Merck medication... On the other hand, though, I have the almost gleeful privilege of reporting to you that beleaguered Pharma giant Merck - the very folks that brought us Vioxx, the arthritis drug that killed or maimed as many as 140,000 Americans - is in hot water again. This time, it's over the drug that's supposed to be taking Vioxx's place in Merck's stable of poisons, I mean, medications.

The problem is that this drug ALSO poses a deadly danger to people's tickers. The drug, called Arcoxia, was the subject of a safety study involving nearly 35,000 subjects. The findings of that research were that this medication poses as much cardiovascular risk - if not more - than a decades-old NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) called diclofenac. The heart travails associated with diclofenac are well known and documented. That's right - Merck's supposed REPLACEMENT for a killer drug they loosed upon the world is seemingly cut from the same cloth! The study's data revealed that not only does Arcoxia carry similar levels of heart attack risk as its older cousin, it also creates more edema (fluid retention), higher blood pressure, and a higher incident of heart failure... Currently, Merck faces more than 23,000 lawsuits for Vioxx's heart-related liabilities. The drug was pulled off pharmacy shelves in September of 2004. But only

after being on the market and killing innocent Americans for more than 5 years after the FDA approved it as "safe" for public consumption. Vioxx's would-be replacement is approved for use in 62 countries worldwide, and it earned Merck over $210 million last year alone. Based on the study's findings, the FDA has requested more information from about Arcoxia from its maker before granting approval for it here in the U.S. But in some better heart-health news... ip your way to a hardy heart Yet again, a study proves the heart benefits of alcohol consumption... A six-year study of over 11,700 men (ironically, they were professionals in the health-care field) previously diagnosed with hypertension found that those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol - 1 to 2 drinks daily - enjoyed an 30% reduction in adjusted risk of fatal heart attack during the 16 years of

study and follow-up. But how's this for encouraging: Subject men who consumed 3-4 drinks per day (50 grams of alcohol or more) lowered their risk by as much as 60 PERCENT, all other factors being equal... The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and reported in the New York Times, also documented reductions in the risk of non-fatal heart attacks among those who drank moderately. Further, the research made no distinction in the type of alcohol consumed. This squares with what I've seen proven before - that alcohol itself is what's beneficial, more so than nutrients in the hops or barley, or even the antioxidants in red wine. So what are you waiting for: Hoist a glass of what you will and toast those who studied what I already knew - and to those who had the guts to report it! William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. http://www.douglassreport.com/dailydose/freecopy.html"Get off your ass and take your government back." ~Rocky Ward

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