Opposing Digits

The consumer group Public Citizen is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw a popular prescription painkiller from the market.

The group says the widely prescribed pain reliever propoxyphene (Darvon, Darvocet and generic versions), should be phased out because it has been associated with more than 2,000 accidental deaths between 1981 and 1999, (nearly 6 percent of all drug-related fatalities), is physically addictive and is no more effective than safer alternatives.

In 2004, 23 million prescriptions for propoxyphene were filled, making it the 12th most commonly prescribed generic drug in the United States.

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