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| Canadian officials say warning on Celebrex would be premature |
| 2004-11-05 |
| Canadian health officials said Thursday they have received reports linking Pfizer painkiller Celebrex to 14 deaths and numerous heart-related side effects, but that it would be premature to issue a warning or pull from the shelves. Canada Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Program, part of the federal health department Health Canada, has collected 100 adverse-reaction reports on Celebrex over the past five years. Celebrex is among a class of drugs that includes Vioxx, a version manufactured by Merck that was pulled off the shelves Sept. 30 because it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients taking it longer than 18 months. Pfizer called reports questioning the safety of Celebrex "misleading." we have heard this line before Pfizer said millions of patients have been prescribed Celebrex since its first approval in 1998 and large-scale clinical studies of up to four years showed no increased cardiovascular safety risk. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |