Pharma Blog Watch

Merck Awaits Recommendation on Arcoxia (Pharma's Market)
In his blog, Mick Huckman discusses Merck's investigational pain killer Arcoxia, which is set to be reviewed by an FDA advisory committee April 12.

"Arcoxia is a Cox-2 inhibitor," he writes. "In other words, it's in the same class of drugs and uses essentially the same mechanism of action as Vioxx, Bextra and Celebrex. Of those three only Celebrex is still on the U.S. market."

"The committee will decide whether to recommend the FDA approve or reject the drug," he continues. "But even if it passes muster, most, if not all Wall Street analysts think Arcoxia would get the most severe 'black box' or FDA safety warning and therefore would scare patients and doctors away."

"Watching the proceedings closely will be Novartis, which expects the FDA to decide whether to approve its Cox-2 drug Prexige by the end of this year."