Schwitzer health news blog

More evidence against value of Cox-2 drugs

The safety questions about Vioxx and other Cox-2 drugs are now well known.

But one of the selling points that helped launch these drugs to begin with was that they were supposedly easier on the stomach than other anti-inflammatory drugs.

A study in last week's BMJ punches more holes in that argument as well.

A large British case-control study found "no strong evidence of enhanced gastrointestinal safety with any of the new cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitors compared with non-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.... and that these drugs may not be as safe as originally thought. Given that enhanced gastrointestinal safety has been one of the main justifications for these drugs, this finding is important."

The authors cautioned: "This is an observational study and may be subject to residual confounding that cannot be fully corrected for."

But with more evidence accumulating, and with safety and efficacy and cost (they cost much more) in question, consumers have reason to question why they should be taking a Cox-2 drug.