As you may have heard, Merck pulled Vioxx was pulled from the market today, after the APPROVe study showed long-term users of Vioxx were more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes than patients on placebo.
Kevin MD is all over this. And Medpundit asks a good question -- could the increased risk of heart attack and stroke come from the lack of aspirin? The data's not published yet, but it seems like classmate Celebrex doesn't have these risks.
So, osteoarthritis patients will start switching, and public health will concomitantly improve. Or will it? On Wall Street today, Merck (NYSE: MRK) stock fell 27%. How many shareholder heart attacks did that cause?