The FDA wants the painkillers Darvon and Darvocet pulled from the market due to safety concerns, and the maker of the branded version of the drugs, Xanodyne, has already said it will comply.

The agency says in a statementthat it received new clinical data showing that the drug propoxyphene "puts patients at risk of potentially serious or even fatal heart rhythms" and concluded its risks outweigh the benefits. Darvon is propoxyphene alone, and Darvocet combines that ingredient with acetaminophen (aka Tylenol).

The FDA said it's requested that makers of the generic drugs pull their versions, too. The WSJ reportsthat in 2007, there were 20 million prescriptions written for the two drugs.

Darvon has been controversial for years. Public Citizen started asking for its removalway back in 1978 and today said the FDA's move came too late to save many lives. It called propoxyphene a "deadly but barely effective painkiller." (Though the Health Blog has been prescribed Darvocet before and it certainly left us feeling no pain.)

In 2005, the UK ordered propoxyphene off the market on concerns that it was too easy to overdose on the drug. Europe's main medical regulator recommended its removal in 2009.