Celebrex, Vioxx, Bextra, FDA Panel Conflict
The government panel that advised on Celebrex, Vioxx, and Bextra, was stacked with members that consulted for the Pharmaceutical companies that manufactured the drugs. Is this a confict of interest? Perhaps, or perhaps not, but it doesn’t look good. It actually smells. However, if one thinks about the knowledge required to make an informed decision about the safety of a pain medication, the knowledge necessary is nearly identical to what a pharma company would want to hire. So, given that there can only be so many experts on the safety of Cox-2 inhibitors, a category of painkiller medication, you probably couldn’t assemble a panel that know their stuff and had never consulted for a Pharmaceutical company.