“A veteran Food and Drug Administration safety officer said yesterday at a Senate hearing on the abrupt recall of the arthritis drug Vioxx that five other widely used drugs should either be withdrawn or more sharply restricted because they have dangerous side effects.

Describing the agency he works for as incapable of stopping dangerous drugs from entering and staying on the market, David J. Graham, associate director of the Office of Drug Safety, told the senators that the FDA’s role in reviewing and approving new drugs sometimes conflicts with its duty to address safety issues.

Asked by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) to identify the five drugs, Graham hesitated and then named them to the startled listeners: the popular cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor, the weight-loss drug Meridia, the painkiller Bextra, the acne medication Accutane and the asthma medication Serevent.” (Washington Post)