ARTHRITIS NEWS

Arthritis drug 'can raise heart failure by 80%': STUDIES I Anti-inflammatory Vioxx found to have greater risk than rival drug Celebrex

Vancouver Sun
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Page: A9
Section: News
Byline: Brad Evenson
Dateline: TORONTO
Source: National Post


TORONTO -- People who take the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx face an 80-per-cent increased risk of heart failure compared with those who take its arch-rival, Celebrex, a Canadian study has found. While the risk to individuals is small, it is magnified because tens of thousands of patients take the popular drug. In theory, it could contribute to dozens of deaths every year. "One in three people will die within a year after they get hospitalized for congestive heart failure," said Dr. Muhammad Mamdani, a senior scientist at the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto. The year-long study was published Friday in The Lancet medical journal. It was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the country's major federal funding agency for health research. This is the second big setback in recent years for Vioxx, a COX-2 inhibitor drug developed at the Merck Frost Centre for Therapeutic Research in Montreal. Last year, a study in Circulation magazine found people using Vioxx had a 24-per-cent increased risk of heart attack when compared with patients using Celebrex. The increased risk of heart attack was shown to occur in just the first three months after starting Vioxx. Mamdani, who led the Lancet study, said such drugs as ibuprofen, called non-selective, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have been shown to raise blood pressure, which can lead to heart failure. But less was known about the effects of COX-2 drugs, including Celebrex and Vioxx, which are among the biggest sellers on the pharmaceutical market since their introduction about five years ago. About 20 per cent of elderly Canadians take either a COX-2 inhibitor or an NSAID to control arthritis or other chronic pain.