Pfizer Pulling Advertising for Celebrex
Dec 20, 4:42 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pfizer Inc. says it will immediately pull advertising for its top-selling arthritis pain reliever Celebrex, whose safety was called into question last week after a study found an increased risk of heart attacks in patients taking high dosages of the drug.

Pfizer spokesman Andy McCormick said the company was suspending Celebrex ads in newspapers, radio, TV and magazines. He said the company made the decision in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration.

McCormick also said Pfizer plans to have its sales staff meet with doctors to explain the findings of the survey, which were made public on Friday. He said Pfizer plans to keep Celebrex on the market.

The FDA said Friday it was considering warning labels for Celebrex or withdrawing the drug from the market. Celebrex is in the same class of drug, called a cox-2 inhibitor, as Vioxx, a rival pain reliever that Merck & Co. pulled from the market earlier this year after a study found the drug doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke.

For the first nine months of the year, worldwide sales of Celebrex more than doubled from a year earlier to $2.3 billion, accounting for 6 percent of Pfizer's total sales of $37.6 billion during that period.

Last year, Pfizer spent $87.6 million to advertise Celebrex, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. It recently launched a new campaign for the drug and placed full-page ads in newspapers touting Celebrex's safety in the wake of Vioxx's recall.

The heart attack risk in the study disclosed Friday occurred when patients took the drug at two to four times the usual dose for many months.

News of the increased heart risk for Celebrex patients came in one of two long-term cancer-prevention trials.

On Monday, the FDA said it had asked Pfizer to suspend its consumer advertising of Celebrex while the agency evaluates new and conflicting information on the drug.

The National Cancer Institute, which was conducting the study for Pfizer, said patients in the clinical trial taking 800 milligrams of Celebrex had a 3.4 times greater risk of cardiovascular problems compared with a placebo.

For patients in the trial taking 400 milligrams of Celebrex, the risk was 2.5 times greater. The average duration of treatment in the trial was 33 months.

Pfizer's shares, which fell hard on Friday following the release of the news, fell another $1.46, or 5.7 percent, to close at $24.29 in heavy trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.