The (possible) return of Vioxx

The pain drug Vioxx has become shorthand for the occasional dangers of pharmaceutical science. But now, 15 years after the drug’s recall, one company is convinced Vioxx deserves another shot as a treatment for a rare and painful disease.

The firm is called Tremeau Pharmaceuticals, and it’s plotting to study the now-generic Vioxx as a treatment for hemophilic arthropathy, a symptom of hemophilia that results in joint pain, inflammation, and damage.

Doctors recall comfortably prescribing Vioxx off-label to treat hemophilic arthropathy back before the recall. But it’s a particularly rare disease, affecting just a fraction of the roughly 20,000 Americans with hemophilia. And it’s unclear whether Tremeau has the financial might to get its reclamation project over the finish line.

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