How powerful are the pharmaceutical companies these days? Their clinical trials and the speedy approval of some new drugs such as Celebrex arthritis drugs, has Americans scratching their heads. On the one hand, the approval process for a new drug is achingly slow – on average, fifteen years. When you are in pain, you really can’t wait fifteen years to get relief. On the other hand, could the cure be worse than the cause?

The COX-2 Inhibitor Family

Not exactly the Addams family, this group of painkillers is both cherished and reviled. They appeared in 1999 as the new miracle drugs for arthritis. They proved to be just as powerful as the usual painkillers, but would not cause bleeding ulcers like constant use of aspirin or ibuprofen would. The two big brands were Vioxx and Celebrex arthritis drugs. At first, things were rosy. The only gripes about Vioxx and Celebrex arthritis drugs were the cost (which is an expected gripe).

But then some people not thought to be prone to heart attacks started dying of heart problems. About 2002, both America and Canada were looking into a completely new side effect unreported by Merck and Pfizer, the makers of Vioxx and Celebrex arthritis drugs, respectively. Apparently, takers of those medicines were getting strokes and heart attacks for strange reasons, soon linked to the medicines. How many of these thousands taking the drugs had died? About 30.

Vioxx was pulled off the market by Merck in 2003 in response. Ever since, they have been up to their eyeballs in lawsuits. It is thought that they speeded the approval process for Vioxx through the financially strapped, severely understaffed FDA. Merck was found negligent in a 2005 case, yet in a 2006 case, they were let off the hook.

How Dangerous Are They?

Although the negligence of Merck is still legally to be determined, it seems that Pfizer, the makers of Celebrex arthritis drugs, are at least trying to make lemonade from the lemons they were given. Instead of pulling Celebrex off the market, they held long-term trials, upped the warnings labels and changed dosing instructions. It is too soon to tell whether they are correct to keep Celebrex arthritis drugs on the market.

But for one Vioxx user, this writer’s mother, she mourns the loss of Vioxx. It took away her arthritis pains and didn’t upset her stomach. Since Vioxx was so popular, many health insurance companies included it in their list of drugs they would cover. Since the percentage of people who did develop heart problems seems so low in comparison to the vast multitude taking it, were the majority really in any more danger than our bad diets and sedentary lifestyle provide? Certainly, a pharmaceutical company should never ignore any warnings about a new drug and continue to carry out long term tests, but why not put Vioxx back on the market? The average consumer is intelligent enough to weigh up all of the options for their own bodies and doesn’t pay attention to what advertising says, anyway.