But in November 2007, final results of a 13, 600 patient trial showed more bleeding with prasugrel.

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Another related drug, called apixaban from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, might have less bleeding when clinical trial results read out next year.

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Moreover, he says, the trial excluded patients at high risk for bleeding, such as those with central nervous system tumors or vascular problems.

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And he worries the bleeding risk will look worse outside of a clinical trial.

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Earlier one trial of the drug was stopped and a second was halted because it increased the risk of bleeding in stroke patients.

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The trial, widely known as the CRASH-2 trial, published in the Lancet, showed the drug could lower the risk of trauma victims bleeding to death by up to 30 per cent.

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Patients with a particular type of lung cancer, called squamous cell carcinoma, were excluded from the trial because a previous study had found that they were more likely than other patients to experience bleeding of the lungs with Avastin therapy.

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None of the journalists in the huge pack in Perugia over the years made any but the most casual efforts to uncover the life story and habits of small-time break-in artist Rudy Guede, whose fingerprints were in the murder room, who never denied being there as Kercher was bleeding to death, and who has been convicted of murdering her in a separate trial.

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Separately, Celebrex's stomach benefit has also come under question, as Pfizer's own big trial was unable to prove that its Celebrex avoided the most serious complication of the older drugs, bleeding ulcers.

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