This year has been tough for drug manufacturers and the advertising agencies that have been charged with marketing their products. Now, a prominent cardiologist has spoken out, urging a slowdown in aggressive advertising campaigns until additional data on COX-2 inhibitors has been collected.

In an article posted today on the American Medical Association's website, Dr. Eric Topol, chief cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is calling for less aggressive ad campaigns for these drugs until all the risks have been studied further. He feels that this category of drug needs further testing in consideration of the startling information that resulted in Vioxx being pulled from pharmacy shelves.

Topol believes that trials should be conducted to study the pros and cons of these drugs in terms of cardiovascular risk.

Merck pulled Vioxx on September 30, after a study by the Food and Drug Administration indicated that as many as 27,785 heart attacks may have been caused by Vioxx. The drug, which was approved for sale in 1999, had been a top seller for Merck.

But Vioxx is not the only COX-2 inhibitor that may pose heart health risks. A similar study found that Bextra and Celebrex might also increase the risk of cardiovascular problems in patients who take the drugs continuously for eighteen months or more.

On the website, Topol writes, 'Had coxib trials been conducted five years ago in patients with established cardiovascular disease, when the benefit and risks were indeterminate, clinicians would have quickly learned the risk and potentially avoided a major cardiovascular calamity.' studies have revealed serious risks connected with several drugs, these massive advertising campaigns have disappeared from the airways. Now, a leading cardiologist has spoken out against heavy advertising of all classes of COX-2 inhibitors.