That does explain it alright, thanks. Ya, you are not much of a Conspiracy wonk, likely a good thing!!

I do jump to Conspiracy [someone's got to do it!]as a default... which I can defend, but not here.

"18 months" was the key. I had not heard than on the initial report I responded to, but you and the TV said it later. That helps me understand why this came out now like this.

Remaining questions?
1] Were the original studies, the ones they spend all those millions on as part of the "onerous application procedure", not able to find this link to heart attack and strokes? Do those tests not go for 18 mos?

I mean, we are supposed to TRUST the drugs, because they have been so well tested. Then a HUGE deal like this shows up - where was that during the orignal testing?

I suspect it was there all along. They just got around it, FDA puppets being the only gaurdian, so nobody knew...

Q2] Did it pay off? The share price loss today, the lawsuits, the pills they have to throw out now... how could that have paid off?
$3/4 billion profit for each of the 5[?] years Vioxx has been on the market. [$750,ooo,ooo U.S.]. YUP, it paid off overall. $5.5 billion minus today's costs is still a good profit.

That might be wrong too, but I can trust NOTHING about a pharmaceutical drug company. They have shown too much willingness to play with our lives and health for profits.

Q3] Are the other COX-2 inhibitor pills [Celebrex, for one] going to be taken off the market too? Is there generics out yet?

Q4 ] are there any pills that have been produced in the past 20 years that do not have seriously harmfull side effects? We heard of Paxil's problems, and now Vioxx, these are the two of the most common drugs out there. Prevacid is all wrong for ulcers; Statin drugs are causing serious problems too.

I guess we are aging, but we are taking more pills than ever and we are sicker than ever...

Jawg

The numbers I mentioned were wrong, it 2.5billion dollars a YEAR, for about 5 years.\

They studied Vioxx for 5 years too!! All the testing was done in 5 week segments, no follow ups were required. On any of the subjects, ever? {"Nope, you do what you like" -FDA
Thats just so weird - all that expense and not look for usefull facts, almost shut out the potential to gain knowledge in these tests before it goes to market. 5 week segments!?!

You see, I think they KNEW it caused heart problems, but they were waiting until there was an increase in the Arthritis patient numbers, which could be arranged in advance. Demographics would be the cover.
Then as the arthiris population grew [swelled!], they sprung Vioxx on them, which gave them heart disease, as Merck/Pfizer/Etc knew it would. Like this story so far?
First they did the required testing, and made it so they would find no link to stroke or heart problems, with these 5 week intervals. Its not like the drug was DESIGNED to be taken for only 5 weeks - Arthritis lasts forever according to doctors: "no cure for it".[there is, but thats another story].
Its designed to be taken for a long time, forever in most patients. So why would they only test for 5 weeks and do no follow ups? None.
Neither Heart,Stroke, nor any other problems would show up in these 5 week tests, and the FDA approves Vioxx.

Within two or three years, enough Arthritis patients will have heart disease to overwhelm the surgeons, and a special pill for 'heart disease due to Vioxx' will be offered , but at a huge cost. Those who cannot afford the new pills can get the new robot surgery, programmed just for this, sponsered by govt as a humanitarian gesture to victims.
Then the pharmaceutical companies who made Cox-2 inhibitors will say "Those with strokes can get on the list for one of our long-term care facilities, which are raking in profits well above expectations".
The rest will die, as will these "lucky ones" eventually, and they will all have spent all their money on pills and surgery. Even the poor ones. "Got it all, let them die now ; See our funeral home section in the back of your prescription" is what the pharmaceutical CEOs will be singing.

So, they get the population to take Vioxx to get heart disease, which is far more profitable than arthritis? Is that what I am saying?

Jawg



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This from link below - An article on Vioxx by Jon Rappaport:

LIGHTS OUT ON VIOXX

SEPTEMBER 30, 2004.
Merck has just removed Vioxx, its big-time anti-arthritis pain drug, from the market. Boom.

The stock of the company fell sharply on Friday morning.

Vioxx was bringing in about $2.5 billion a year.

Merck had been running a long–term study to see if the drug could limit pre-cancerous growths, and, the company states, after 18 months heart problems began to show up in patients.

No one can say (from undone long-term studies), right now, whether other drugs like Vioxx, the so-called Cox-2 inhibitors, are creating the same heart problems all over the globe. But watch out.

Pfizer, which manufactures Celebrex and one other Cox-2, is standing on the edge of a cliff.

The FDA can claim it was ignorant of the heart problems when it approved Vioxx, because it took Merck 18 months to see the danger signs. Love those short-term studies.

Of course, Merck also faces potential lawsuits from customers now.

Those suits really take a bite in the punitive phase---so since Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx, it can assert that it has been responsible and has not hidden adverse effects from the public---and therefore, it shouldn’t be hit with billion-dollar damages from juries.

You can be sure that the FDA and a number of drug companies will do everything they can to avoid an across-the-board indictment of the Cox-2s. Because such exposure would be like a wash of toxic acid in the realm of public confidence in medical drugs.

One bad drug? Okay. A whole CLASS of bad drugs? Not okay.

If you start googling Vioxx and the other Cox-2s, you’ll see that there have been warning signs for a long time.

Look for a patch-patch fix where the drug outfits and the FDA now say that doctors should prescribe tranqs/downers/blood pressure meds to offset the heart risk created by the Cox-2s.

And those drugs will cause new adverse effects, and there will be other drugs to offset that. And so on.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com

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he's a dandy eh?
Jawg

http://www.nomorefakenews.com/