Kaiser bans prescription painkiller Bextra over concerns about safety [View All]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/10766161.htm

Citing safety concerns over heart attacks and strokes, health care giant Kaiser Permanente will no longer prescribe Bextra -- a popular painkiller similar to the recently pulled-off-the-market Vioxx -- for its millions of patients.

The Oakland-based HMO, hospital and clinic network, which serves 6.2 million Californians and 8.5 million patients nationwide, has asked doctors to find safer alternatives for patients suffering from arthritis and other maladies. Kaiser pharmacies will stop filling prescriptions Tuesday and no longer issue refills starting March 1.

This is the first time Kaiser has banned a drug that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a Kaiser spokesman said he believes no other health system has taken similar action against Bextra. Kaiser's use of Bextra is a tiny percentage of its overall prescriptions.

But the HMO's size and nationwide influence -- plus a recent New England Journal of Medicine admonition to doctors to stop prescribing Bextra ``except in extraordinary circumstances'' -- could prompt other large health systems to abandon the drug as well.