Painkiller Vioxx Linked to 5 Meningitis Cases
From Times Wire Reports
The popular painkiller Vioxx has been linked to five cases of a nonbacterial type of meningitis, a possible side effect that, although rare, is serious, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports.
The cases are among seven reported to the FDA from May 1999--when it approved Vioxx for arthritis and other acute pain--through February 2001, according to the report in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
About 52 million Vioxx prescriptions have been written in the United States since June 1999, a spokeswoman for Merck & Co. said.
