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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Local doctors ‘flooded with calls’ over Vioxx

Carla K. Johnson Staff writer

Some Inland Northwest arthritis sufferers called their doctors Thursday upon hearing that the popular drug Vioxx would no longer be sold.

“We’re flooded with calls,” said Christine Eriksen, spokeswoman for Rockwood Clinic.

Doctors are switching some patients to other similar drugs such as Celebrex, she said. Rockwood Clinic is tossing out free samples of Vioxx and pulling it from its pharmacies.

Group Health Cooperative pharmacies, however, don’t carry Vioxx and never did. Group Health reviewed the efficacy and safety of Vioxx in 2001 and decided to keep it off its list of approved drugs because of safety concerns.

In addition, Vioxx is about five times as expensive as over-the-counter naproxen (Aleve), said Galen Goertzen, manager of clinical pharmacy services for Group Health in Eastern Washington.

Any advantage Vioxx had in being easier on the stomach was outweighed by higher cardiovascular risks that already were showing up in the literature at that time, Goertzen said.

For similar reasons, in 2002, Premera Blue Cross mailed warning letters about Vioxx to all health-care professionals in its statewide network and to members taking the drug. Premera also removed the drug from its preferred list.

The recommendation to send the warning letters was unprecedented and came from Premera’s Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee, a group of independent experts that advises the health insurance company.