Ten of the 32 drug safety experts who voted to keep Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx on the market had ties to either Pfizer Inc., or Merck & Company, an advocacy group said.

The Food and Drug Administration on February 16-18, 2005 held an advisory committee meeting to discuss the cardiovascular risks posed by pain relief drugs known as Cox-2 inhibitors, which include Pfizer’s Celebrex and Bextra and Merck’s Vioxx. At the end of the hearing, the FDA advisory panel voted to keep all three on the market, though with heightened warnings about the heart risk posed by this class of drugs.

At the request of the New York Times, the Center for Science in the Public Interest evaluated the 32 scientific experts chosen by the FDA to evaluate these drugs. The CSPI research uncovered affiliations between 10 of the scientists that served on the committee and the three manufacturers of Cox-2 inhibitors. Another 17 scientists had other ties to drug manufacturers, though not the three with products under consideration at the meeting.

All three painkillers have been amid controversy since September 30, 2004, after Merck pulled Vioxx from the market because it was found to increase a patients’s risk of heart attack and stroke.

(via Center for Science in the Public Interest)