01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

NEW YORK, Sept 30: Merck & Co on Thursday pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx off the market because it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke, a move that sent its shares plunging, erasing $25 billion of its market value.

Vioxx, used by two million people around the world, accounts for 10 percent of Merck's annual sales. The withdrawal of the drug casts a cloud over an entire class of widely used arthritis and pain drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors.

"This has implications for all members of this class," said Dr. Garret Fitz Gerald, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Merck said that in a colon cancer trial, patients who took Vioxx for three years faced twice the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, as patients taking a placebo.

"Patients who are currently taking Vioxx should contact their health care providers to discuss discontinuing use of Vioxx and possible alternative treatments," it said.

Concerns over the drug's side effects have been building in recent years after several studies showed risks attached to it. Other drugs in the same class, including Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex and Bextra and Novartis AG's Prexige, have so far not shown the same dangers.

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would closely watch other such drugs. World wide sales of Vioxx totaled $2.55 billion last year. Since its introduction in 1999, 84 million people have used the medication. In the United States alone, 91 million Vioxx prescriptions have been written. The drug is sold in some countries under the name Ceoxx.

"This is a very significant negative for Merck. Not only is this a nearly $3 billion drug, but it calls into question the future of one the key drugs in its pipeline, Arcoxia," said Scott Henry, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

Arcoxia, which is similar to Vioxx, is sold outside the United States but has not yet been approved by the FDA because of concerns about heart and stroke risk. Some analysts had expected the agency to rule on Arcoxia by late October.

Merck is already struggling with slowing earnings growth and faces the loss of patent protection for its biggest-selling drug, cholesterol fighter Zocor, in 2006. Despite the setback, Merck Chairman and Chief Executive Raymond Gil martin said he had no intention of resigning. -Reuters