Growing
Body of Evidence Confirms Powerful Pain Relief
of Rofecoxib
New Studies Show Rofecoxib Effectively
Relieves Pain Associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis
and Pain from Dental Surgery
A broad range of studies presented during the
recent American College of Rheumatology (ACR)
congress at San Francisco, California further
confirmed the powerful pain relief of Merck Sharp
& Dohme's (MSD) arthritis medicine rofecoxib.
New data presented here shows that rofecoxib
reduced the pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis,
one of the most serious and painful forms of arthritis.
In another study presented at ACR, rofecoxib provided
superior and longer-acting pain relief than a
commonly used narcotic in patients undergoing
dental surgery to remove multiple molars impacted
in bone - a common model used in assessing patient
response to pain medication.
Benefits of rofecoxib in Rheumatoid Arthritis
A study showed the benefit of rofecoxib in reducing
the pain and inflammation associated with rheumatoid
arthritis. In the study, 909 rheumatoid arthritis
(RA) patients were randomized to either treatment
with rofecoxib using the recommended starting
dose for osteoarthritis given once daily, rofecoxib
at twice the recommended starting dose for osteoarthritis
given once daily, naproxen at the usual prescription
strength for RA twice daily, or placebo for 12
weeks. Naproxen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drug (NSAID) that is commonly prescribed for the
treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
The study found that rofecoxib at twice the
recommended starting dose for osteoarthritis given
once daily provided pain relief to the same degree
as the above naproxen dose twice daily and superior
pain relief compared to placebo on all primary
and key secondary measures. Specifically, both
this dose of rofecoxib and naproxen were found
to significantly reduce the number of tender joints
(p<0.05) and the number of swollen joints (p<0.05),
compared to placebo. In addition, significant
improvements on the patient and investigator respective
global assessments of disease activity were observed
with rofecoxib and naproxen, compared to placebo
(p<0.05). Rofecoxib at the usual recommended starting
dose for osteoarthritis given once daily showed
significant improvements compared to placebo for
only the patient and investigator global assessments.
All active treatments had favorable tolerability,
with similar adverse event rates observed across
all groups.
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