Indomethacin
Approved, for something elseMeasured in people, not heightBy mouthSmall molecule
An old anti-inflammatory that blocks both COX enzymes. Swallowed, it is licensed for arthritis and gout, and its label tells doctors not to give it to a child of 14 or under unless other drugs have failed. Injected, it is licensed to close a heart vessel in premature babies. Using it to stop unwanted bone forming after fracture surgery is off-label.
A substituted indole and a non-selective COX inhibitor, approved in two forms. The oral suspension is labelled for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and osteoarthritis, acute painful shoulder and acute gouty arthritis; its label does not establish safety and effectiveness in patients 14 years of age and younger, and says it should not be prescribed for them unless the toxicity or lack of efficacy of other drugs warrants the risk. The injection is approved to close a haemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus in premature infants when usual medical management has failed. Heterotopic ossification prophylaxis, the use its skeletal data comes from, appears on no indomethacin label.
Risks. The swallowed form carries the strongest kind of warning a label can carry, for heart attacks and strokes and for bleeding, ulcers and holes in the stomach or gut, which can kill. Its measured harm to bone is to a healing fracture: given after surgery on a broken hip socket to stop unwanted bone forming, 26% of the patients had another broken bone fail to knit against 7% of those not given it.
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Educational content, not medical advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to take or stop taking anything — talk to a doctor about your own situation.