Meloxicam in Russia: 20 years together

Abstract

Meloxicam is one of the most commonly used representatives of the group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prescribed in our country. It has been used in Russian clinical practice for 20 years and established itself as an effective and rather safe analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications. During this period almost 48 million packages of brand-name meloxicam have been sold; millions of people in our country have been successfully treated with this drug. During this period, there have been at least 29 Russian clinical trials of brand-name meloxicam, which covered 3,736 patients. In all the trials, meloxicam has demonstrated a good therapeutic potential (a substantial improvement in more than 75% of patients) and a low incidence of side effects, which averaged 6.4% (30.5% in the control groups). The good tolerability of brand-name meloxicam (Movalis) is confirmed by a total of 120 spontaneous reports of the adverse events due to this drug, which were sent to the Federal Service for Health Supervision in December 2008 to July 2015 (over the last 7 years). This number seems negligible (nearly 30 million packages) if the amount of meloxicam sold over the period is taken into account. Extensive experience in clinical practice with this drug and a wide series of national clinical trials support the good reputation of brand-name meloxicam among Russian physicians and patients. This review briefly gives the data of Russian and main foreign clinical trials of the therapeutic effect and safety of meloxicam.