| Evelyn Pringle: Pfizer Celebrex Lawsuits - 1500 and Counting
The first Celebrex trial, originally set for June 6, 2006, has been delayed indefinitely, reportedly to give attorneys more time to gather information. Although no new trial date has been set, legal analysts now predict that Celebrex trials will begin in early 2007. The delay was requested by a federal judge in San Francisco, where Pfizer is facing around 1,500 lawsuits related to its painkillers Celebrex and Bextra, according to Bloomberg News. In light of the studies on Celebrex that have surfaced over the past year, any media update should say 1,500 lawsuits and counting. The lawsuits filed actually list defendants involved in the development, manufacturing and distributing of Celebrex as Pfizer Inc, Pharmacia Corp, Monsanto Co, and GD Searle & Co. On August 30, 2006, Health Day News doused Pfizer's last hope of ever finding a reason to justify the over-prescribing of Celebrex when it reported that the "final word on whether the cox-2 painkiller Celebrex might be used to prevent colon cancer is a definite "no," according to the long-awaited results of two major studies." "Both of the three-year trials found that the drug reduced the occurrence of precancerous polyps called adenomas in people at risk for colon cancer," Health Day wrote, "but it more than doubled patients' risk for heart attack and other serious cardiovascular events." "The message is that celecoxib has no role as a chemotherapeutic agent -- in people with adenomas or in people among the general population," said Dr Bruce Psaty, a professor of medicine, epidemiology and health services at the University of Washington in Seattle, who co-authored an editorial on the two studies, published in the August 31, 2006, New England Journal of Medicine.
When a Migraine Strikes
For years, Jenny suffered in silence. She was constantly off sick from work with a throbbing, pulsating headache that kept her inactive for days at a time. She would take the usual over-the-counter medications but they seldom worked. Then one day, she was watching TV when a commercial was aired, featuring people who suffered from migraine headaches. As she watched, she realised that the sufferers were experiencing symptoms similar to hers. "Up to that moment, I had no idea that I could be suffering from migraines. I just thought that I needed glasses or needed to sleep," said Jenny. A migraine is a throbbing headache that is often one-sided. Usually, it is accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Migraine sufferers also complain of sensitivity to light, sound, and smells, sleep disruption and depression.
Study briefs, 9/12: Cancer, asthma risk, pregnancy
THE QUESTION Various studies have reported that people with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely to develop cancer than are those who don’t have it. Might this be related to the drugs taken to treat the chronic disease?THIS STUDY analyzed medical data on 7,830 people with rheumatoid arthritis, all 65 and older. Most people had been prescribed methotrexate to treat their arthritis symptoms; about 15 percent were taking a different type of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD), including the so-called biologic medications etanercept (Enbrel) and infliximab (Remicade). Blood and lymphatic cancers were diagnosed in 69 people; solid tumors were found in 604 participants. Although blood cancers were somewhat more common among people taking biologic drugs than those taking methotrexate, overall there was less than a 5 percent difference in cancer risk between the groups.WHO MAY BE AFFECTED BY THESE FINDINGS? Anyone with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease that affects more than 2 million Americans.CAVEATS Before they started taking the drugs, people who took biologic DMARDs generally had more severe rheumatoid arthritis than the others.
|
