Medical News Summary: Promising drugs raise dilemma of whether benefits outweigh the risks
About: Promising drugs raise dilemma of whether benefits outweigh the risks
Date: 23 December 2004
Source: International Herald Tribune
Author: Gina Kolata
Medical News Summary (summary of medical news story as reported by International Herald Tribune): Merck has revealed that the recently withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx was capable of significantly reducing the development precancerous polyps in the colon. Nevertheless, it has no intention of bringing back the product. Recently, it was also revealed that Aleve (naproxen), an over the counter pain reliever, was also causing concern about side effects. Aleve was shown to increase the risk of heart problems by 50% which is still a fairly insignificant amount in actual figures but it was enough to stop further trials. The dilemma is to decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
URL: http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/22/news/pharmacy.html
Related Disease Topics: Arthritis, Pain, Cancer, Polyps, Colon cancer, Heart problems
Related Medical News Channels: This medical news summary article refers to the following medical channel categories:
- Medication
- medication and arthritis
- medication and pain
- medication and cancer
- Medication and polyps
- medication and colon cancer
- medication and heart problems
- Research
- research and arthritis
- research and pain
- research and cancer
- Research and polyps
- research and colon cancer
- research and heart problems
- risk and arthritis
- risk and pain
- risk and cancer
- Risk and polyps
- risk and colon cancer
- risk and heart problems
- cause of heart problems
- Side effect
- Side effect and heart problem
- Side effect and arthritis
- Side effect and pain
- Side effect and cancer
- Side effect and polyps
- Side effect and colon cancer
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