Banned drug still on shelves.

A banned anti-inflammatory drug is still being sold at pharmacies here, weeks after it was ordered off shelves here and in several other countries, reports AP (Jan. 25, 2008):

In the final weeks of 2007, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Chile withdrew from the market lumiracoxib, better known by its brand name Prexige. The medication is used to treat knee osteoarthritis, and in some countries general osteoarthritis, in adults. The drug's manufacturer, Switzerland-based Novartis AG, was forced to remove the drug from the Australian market in August after two patients died and two others had to undergo liver transplants;

Guatemala issued orders in December prohibiting the drug's distribution and sale "immediately," said Jorge Villavicencio, head of the medication control office at the Health Ministry. In visits to seven pharmacies in Guatemala City, an AP reporter found the drug was still being sold at five of them. The medication also has been withdrawn in Europe and Canada, and was never approved in the United States. In Latin America, the Panamanian government is considering a ban, while Prexige is still being sold in Honduras, Peru and Brazil, among other countries.