Cox-2 drugs may suppress immune function
Analgesics called Cox-2 inhibitors, which U.S. health officials restricted Thursday, can not only damage the heart and blood vessels but may also suppress the immune system, researchers said.
A study published this week in the Journal of Immunology shows the drugs, used by arthritis sufferers, might affect the antibodies that attack invading germs. ...This could be both good news and bad news for the drugs, which have also recently been shown to double or triple the risk of heart attacks and strokes, the researchers at the University of Rochester in New York said. ...Pfizer Inc. suspended sales of its Cox-2 inhibitor Bextra Thursday at the request of U.S., European and Canadian regulators.
The Food and Drug Administration also asked Pfizer to include a strong “black box” warning for its Cox-2 drug Celebrex. Merck & Co.’s Cox-2 Vioxx was withdrawn last year.
Also see: Painkiller Bextra pulled from market
Adiponectin: Healing a wounded heart OR
Adiponectin
Adiponectin stimulates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and COX-2 to prevent myocyte apoptosis and reduce inflammation after ischemic heart injury.
Original research papers: Nature Medicine 11, 1096 - 1103 (2005)
(One or the other of these links should work - but you probably will need to sign up for a free subscription.)
Merck One; Plaintiffs One
After deliberating for less than eight hours over three days, the jury cleared Merck of allegations it failed to warn consumers about the drug’s risks and engaged in “unconscionable commercial practices” in marketing it to doctors and their patients.
The verdict was Merck’s first win out of two Vioxx-related trials. In August, a Texas jury found the company liable in a Vioxx user’s death.
Only one juror, casino worker Juan Garcia, voted that Merck failed to give adequate warnings to doctors about the link between Vioxx and increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. ...“I think they should have known and explained more to the doctors and everyone,” Garcia said. He said he also believed Vioxx was a factor in causing Humeston’s heart attack.
But Vickie Heintz, who works in a manufacturer’s credit department, said she believed stress and Humeston’s other health problems were responsible for his heart attack. ...“I thought he had way too many health other issues,” Heintz said. “His medical records were riddled with many medicines.”
Journal: Merck hid bad Vioxx outcomes
Vioxx maker Merck & Co. concealed heart attacks suffered by three patients during a clinical study of the now-withdrawn painkiller in a report on the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2000, the journal wrote in an editorial released Thursday.
The editorial, written by the journal’s editor in chief, Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, executive editor Dr. Gregory D. Curfman and a third doctor, also alleges the study’s authors deleted other relevant data before submitting their article for publication. ...“Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article,” the doctors wrote. ...Adverse cardiovascular events include heart attacks, strokes and deaths.
One of the study’s authors was Dr. Alise Reicin, Merck’s vice president for clinical research. Reicin on Wednesday testified in the Houston trial that the company never misled doctors and the public about studies linking heart attacks to Vioxx.
The company now faces at least 7,000 lawsuits over Vioxx and legal liability some analysts have estimated at up to $50 billion. Those problems were part of the reason Merck last week announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs and close eight manufacturing and research facilities around the world as the first step in a sweeping reorganization.
The journal editors also again criticized Merck and the study's outside co-authors for failing to report the total number of serious thromboembolic events — including heart attacks, strokes and blood clots — among patients taking Vioxx in the trial. An internal Merck memo revealed that 47 patients on Vioxx suffered those problems, compared with 20 taking naproxen, according to the editors.
A jury on Wednesday found Merck & Co. failed to warn Vioxx users of the drug's heart risks and ordered it to pay a 77-year-old plaintiff at least $4.5 million in a decision that raises questions about the company's future defense of thousands of lawsuits filed over the medicine.
The jury determined that the company knew or should have known that its pain drug increased the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events, but didn't adequately warn users or their doctors.
...but I do think the same concerns apply to all biotech - eg. with Protexia we're talking recombinant human
butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). ...Most biotechnology products carry a danger of 'mixing' with natural proteins, altering genetic structures etc.
...Protexia's risks go beyond the now normal dangers of untested drugs - and into the realm of biotech - IMO, just as bad as the goat thing. ....And
all this is happening without any monitoring or oversight. 
