Vioxx Users Had Increased Risk of Heart Disease;
Drug May Have Caused As Many As 140,000 Events, Researchers Say

photo-1Vioxx may have caused between 88,000 and 140,000 excess cases of serious coronary heart disease in the United States since it was approved by the FDA in 1999, researchers have reported.

In an article released Jan. 24 and published in The Lancet, FDA Drug Safety Officer David J. Graham and several of his colleagues determined that in addition to the vast number of cardiac injuries caused by Vioxx, people taking the drug had a 34 percent higher chance of coronary heart disease when compared to those taking other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

The study examined data from 1.4 million Californians …