Kaiser bans prescription painkiller Bextra over concerns about safety

[leftchick]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/10766161.htm

Citing safety concerns over heart attacks and strokes, health care giant Kaiser Permanente will no longer prescribe Bextra -- a popular painkiller similar to the recently pulled-off-the-market Vioxx -- for its millions of patients.

The Oakland-based HMO, hospital and clinic network, which serves 6.2 million Californians and 8.5 million patients nationwide, has asked doctors to find safer alternatives for patients suffering from arthritis and other maladies. Kaiser pharmacies will stop filling prescriptions Tuesday and no longer issue refills starting March 1.

This is the first time Kaiser has banned a drug that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a Kaiser spokesman said he believes no other health system has taken similar action against Bextra. Kaiser's use of Bextra is a tiny percentage of its overall prescriptions.

But the HMO's size and nationwide influence -- plus a recent New England Journal of Medicine admonition to doctors to stop prescribing Bextra ``except in extraordinary circumstances'' -- could prompt other large health systems to abandon the drug as well.

[jilln]

1. another winner approved by animal experimentation

seems like there's a new one in the news every day.

[sam sarrha]

2. If the Liberals would allow Tort Reform ...this wouldn't happen

Profits wouldn't be lost to "Whiners"..

[Divernan]

3. Bush eviscerated the FDA; but Kaiser is afraid of trial lawyers

This is such damning evidence of how Big Pharmaceuticals have successfully lobbied and destroyed the protective function of the FDA.

[romantico]

4. Yeah, my Mom was forced off of Bextra

She has diabtes & used it for inflamtion/pain. Her Doctor told her take Tylonol which she says doesn't work as well as Bextra. She is NOT happy!