etoricoxib etoricoxib etoricoxib, sold under the trade name arcoxia, is a selective cox-2 inhibitor from mcolson research laboratories. currently it is approved in more than 80 countries worldwide but not in the us, where the food and drug administration (fda) has required additional safety and efficacy data for etoricoxib before it will issue approval. etoricoxibclinical dataahfs/drugs.cominternational drug namespregnancycategory au: c not recommended routes ofadministrationby mouthatc codem01ah05 (who) legal statuslegal status au: s4 (prescription only) uk: pom (prescription only) pharmacokinetic databioavailability100%protein binding92%metabolismhepatic, cyp extensively involved (mainly cyp3a4)elimination half-life22 hoursexcretionrenal (70%) and fecal (20%)identifiers iupac name 5-chloro-6'-methyl-3--2,3'-bipyridine cas number202409-33-4 ypubchem cid123619iuphar/bps2896drugbankdb01628 ychemspider110209 yuniiwrx4nfy03rkeggd03710 ychebichebi:6339 ychemblchembl416146 ycomptox dashboard (epa)dtxsid3046457 echa infocard100.207.709 chemical and physical dataformulac18h15cln2o2smolar mass358.84 g·mol−13d model (jsmol)interactive image smiles o=s(=o)(c3ccc(c2cc(cl)cnc2c1cnc(cc1)c)cc3)c inchi inchi=1s/c18h15cln2o2s/c1-12-3-4-14(10-20-12)18-17(9-15(19)11-21-18)13-5-7-16(8-6-13)24(2,22)23/h3-11h,1-2h3 ykey:mnjvrjdlrvplfe-uhfffaoysa-n y (verify) it was patented in 1996 and approved for medical use in 2002. medical uses etoricoxib is indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, chronic low back pain, acute pain, and gout. approved indications differ by country. in the u.k. and germany, it is also "used for the short term treatment of moderate pain after dental surgery" of adults. efficacy a cochrane review assessed the benefits of single-dose etoricoxib in reduction of acute post-operative pain in adults. single-dose oral etoricoxib provides four times more pain relief post-operatively than placebo, with equivalent levels of adverse events. etoricoxib given at a dose of 120 mg is as effective or even better than other analgesics that are commonly used. adverse effects like all other nsaids the cox-2 inhibitors too have their share of adverse effects. fixed drug eruption and generalised erythema, acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (agep), erythema multiforme like eruption and drug induced pretibial erythema are some serious side effects reported, besides the usual innocuous ones. mechanism of action like any other selective cox-2 inhibitor ("coxib"), etoricoxib selectively inhibits isoform 2 of the enzyme cyclooxygenase (cox-2). it has approximately 106-fold selectivity for cox-2 inhibition over cox-1. this reduces the generation of prostaglandins (pgs) from arachidonic acid. among the different functions exerted by pgs, their role in the inflammation cascade should be highlighted. selective cox-2 inhibitors show less activity on cox-1 compared to traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaid). this reduced activity is the cause of reduced gastrointestinal side effects, as demonstrated in several large clinical trials performed with different coxibs. adverse cardiovascular events some clinical trials and meta-analysis showed that treatment with some coxibs (in particular rofecoxib) led to increased incidence of adverse cardiovascular events compared to placebo. because of these results, some drugs were withdrawn from the market (rofecoxib in september 2004 and valdecoxib in april 2005). in addition, the united states food and drug administration and the european medicines agency started revision processes of the entire class of both nsaids and cox-2 inhibitors. brand names brand names for etoricoxib include: algix and tauxib in italy anexia in colombia arcox, berrica, and starcox etoxib in pakistan arcoxia in australia, brazil, bulgaria, chile, china, colombia, costa rica, croatia, czechia, ecuador, egypt, estonia, finland, georgia, germany, greece, guatemala, hong kong, hungary, indonesia, ireland, israel, italy, jordan, lebanon, lithuania, luxembourg, malaysia, mexico, morocco, netherlands, new zealand, norway, panama, philippines, poland, portugal, romania, russian federation, saudi arabia, serbia, singapore, south africa, spain, sweden, taiwan, thailand, the bahamas, trinidad & tobago, united arab emirates, united kingdom and ukraine. atocib in vietnam berica in pakistan dolicox in morocco dolocox in argentina coxit in jordan dabie in singapore doloxib in poland e-cox and vecoxib in nepal eberil in thailand erciba in greece etoll, etoshine, nucoxia in india etori in germany etoriax in germany etorican in germany etoriconio in germany etoricox in germany etoricoxib in germany etorix, eto, tory, etoxib, and vargus in bangladesh and costa rica etozox, etospeed, intacoxia, nucoxia, etos mr, and etoshine in india exinef in singapore and south africa exxiv in portugal foldox in argentina and paraguay gerocoxan in romania hetori in brazil kostarox in poland roticox in poland xumer in chile, peru and mexico