Concerns about the safety of Pfizer's Celebrex [3], Merck [4]'s Vioxx [5] and other so-called COX-2 inhibitor drugs represent "perhaps the clearest instance yet of how the confluence of medicine and marketing can turn hope into hype - and how difficult it is for the Food and Drug Administration to monitor the safety of drugs after they have been approved for the market," reports the New York Times. "Having spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their drugs, the makers of Celebrex and Vioxx, cheered on by Wall Street, had every motivation to expand their markets." Massive advertising campaigns targeted to consumers [6] and health professionals drove "consumer demand for COX-2 drugs far beyond ... those patients who really benefit from them."