The FDA announced today that Pfizer’s Celebrex significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular problems. What does this have to do with Workers’ Comp?
A lot.
Celebrex, approved by the FDA for treatment of arthritis, has been one of the most popular drugs for treatment of musculo-skeletal injuries common in workers’ comp. Now, those patients who have been treated with Celebrex for a workers comp condition may find themselves with a heart condition, and that heart condition may be due in part to Celebrex.
While attorneys, researchers, and others argue over the causality issues, adjusters, insurers, and reinsurers will find themselves faced with claims for heart problems from patients with bad knees. Unfortunately, there does seem to be a strong linkage between Celebrex and cardiovascular problems, and these problems may not be limited to Celebrex and Vioxx…
“”We do have great concern about this product and the class of products,” said acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford. “ Commissioner Crawford’s concerns arise from the FDA’s analysis of the study, which indicates:
“800 milligrams of Celebrex had 3.4 times greater risk of cardiovascular problems compared to a placebo. For patients in the trial taking 400 milligrams the risk was 2.5 times greater.”
The good news is the marginally better outcomes delivered by these medications was far outweighed by their additional cost. Now, physicians can return to prescribing naproxyn, Tylenol, and ibuprofen for these conditions. Leaving aside the point that the docs should have been doing this all along, perhaps the tragedy (financial and personal) that has been and will be caused by these two over-hyped and under-researched drugs will lead doctors to practice more conservative prescribing behavior.
After all, the docs who wrote the scripts may have some liability as well…
Dec
17
