The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reportedly rejected a request by Merck and Co. on Friday to market Arcoxia, a successor to its withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx in the United States after a 20-1 vote some weeks ago.

Arcoxia falls in the same category of drugs as Vioxx, Bextra and Celebrex that have been withdrawn from the market in September 2004, after studies showed they doubled the risk for heart attack and stroke

A study shows that fish oil supplements containing omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) might help treat neck and back pain.

Joseph Maroon and Jeffrey Bost work in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's neurological surgery department said, "Such supplements might be a safer alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for some patients with spine-related pain

A new study shows that patients taking Celebrex are nearly twice as likely to experience a heart attack as people using other drugs to treat arthritis pain.

Researchers at the New Zealand Medical Research Institute analyzed six studies involving 12,780 patients. They found that patients taking Celebrex had a 1.88-fold increase risk of a heart attack compared to those taking other painkillers

A federal judge on Friday upheld the validity of two key U.S. patents on Pfizer Inc.'s Lipitor cholesterol drug, blocking a generic version of the medicine that threatened the company's largest source of revenue. The decision, which lifted Pfizer shares 10 percent, dealt a setback to Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd which had hoped to introduce the cheaper copycat as soon as 2008. Pfizer will now have patent protection on the world's best-selling drug through June 2011. Ranbaxy vowed to appeal the decision.

Lipitor is Pfizer's pillar of strength as the company's revenue growth and earnings continue to dwindle due to a raft of problems. Sales of Pfizer's Celebrex have been cut almost in half due to safety concerns. Revenue from Bextra was eliminated when the drug was withdrawn after being linked to a deadly skin condition

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner, Dr. Lester Crawford, has resigned, after repeated claims that he allowed his agency to "play politics" with drug approvals, and oversaw some very high profile drug safety recalls.

The White House quickly named Andrew von Eschenbach, the director of the National Cancer Institute, as acting FDA commissioner