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VIOXX was on the market for five years before the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) figured out it could kill and withdrew it – by that time tens of thousands may have been affected. But what if the painkiller’s fatal side effects had been spotted within months?

Early identification of dangerous drugs like Vioxx is the goal of a computer monitoring system introduced last week by the FDA. The will check patients’ prescription claims and doctors’ invoices from Medicare, a publicly funded health insurance plan, to see if those taking certain drugs are also being treated for side effects.

Currently, the FDA is forced to rely on drug makers, patients and doctors to report side effects, which many fail to do, so it can take a long time for dangerous drugs to be spotted. 91É«ÇéƬ insurer WellPoint of Indianapolis, Indiana, which used its patient records to , says the system would have flagged up Vioxx just six months after problems started to emerge.

However, because Medicare only covers elderly citizens, Sentinel won’t identify the side effects of drugs taken by young people, such as contraceptives.

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