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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (7468)	4/20/1999 3:29:00 PM
From: Little Gorilla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Tuesday April 20, 2:57 pm Eastern Time U.S. FDA panel backs Merck's Vioxx for acute pain GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 20 (Reuters) - A Food and Drug Administration panel on Tuesday voted to back Merck's (MRK - news) pain killer Vioxx to treat acute pain. The panel voted 6-0 with two abstentions to recommend approval for Vioxx for acute pain, such as menstrual pain and post-surgical pain. Earlier, the panel had supported Vioxx for treating pain associated with osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear joint pain that afflicts 21 million Americans. The nation's largest drug maker hopes Vioxx will be a competitor to Monsanto Co.'s (MTC - news) popular arthritis drug Celebrex, which rocked the market this year by becoming one of the best-selling new drugs in history. Both Vioxx and Celebrex are so-called COX-2 inhibitors, which have shown the ability to kill pain without the sometimes serious side effects of older drugs. They work by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme while causing far fewer ulcers and gastrointestinal problems than commonly used drugs. Those side effects send about 100,000 Americans to the hospital each year, and between 10,000 and 20,000 die. Drug industry analysts had said they expected the FDA panel to support Vioxx but said its success would depend on what the agency puts on the drug's label regarding uses and side effects. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------