Nabumetone: new preparation. Just another NSAID.

(1) Nabumetone is a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug recently marketed in France. It has been available in other countries for about 15 years. Its licensed indications cover chronic inflammatory rheumatism and osteoarthritis. (2) The clinical file is bulky, but available trials in chronic inflammatory rheumatism involve only rheumatoid arthritis. (3) In rheumatoid arthritis (4 trials) and osteoarthritis (11 trials), nabumetone was no more effective than other nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs with which it was compared. (4) Clinical trial data, pharmacovigilance surveys and epidemiological studies suggest that nabumetone is among the antiinflammatory drugs with the least gastrointestinal adverse effects, but it has not yet been shown that they are less frequent than those of diclofenac, etodolac, ibuprofen or sulindac.