I wondered when someone would bring this up but I wouldn't have guessed where. What we are seeing right now is a direct effect of the Bush Administration. The Republicans made it known to the FDA that not enough new drugs were being approved and that the FDA was overly concerned with safety.
Vioxx was the first of the COX-2 inhibitors to be submitted for approval. The safety problems have been known for a long time. My understanding was that since COX-2 inhibitors have fewer gastric side effects than older NSAIDs, they were considered a step forward in safety. Since sales of the drug have been very good, the company has been against taking it off the market even as the evidence built over time. The company no doubt has other safer molecules in their pipeline to replace it, but didn't want to spend the 100+million dollars to get it on approved.