Do I have a Celebrex Case?

Celebrex raises heart attack risk
December 18, 2004 07:55

Another blockbuster painkiller, Celebrex, has been found to raise the risk of heart attacks when taken in high doses, the drug's maker said yesterday.

But Pfizer Inc., which produces the nation's best-selling pain medication, said it did not plan to take the drug off the market because it has not been shown to increase the risk of heart attacks at lower doses.

The announcement came just two months after similar concerns forced Merck to pull its competing drug Vioxx off the shelves. Both drugs belong to a newer class of potent painkillers called cox-2 inhibitors - touted for causing fewer stomach problems than older anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin or ibuprofen. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/263241p-225300c.html

News that the arthritis drug Celebrex may raise the risk of heart attacks sent the class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors from blockbuster to bust.

Federal health officials announced they were halting a colon-cancer-prevention study using Celebrex, reviewing the safety of scores of other trials involving Cox-2 inhibitors, and considering whether to add more warnings or even recall the drugs.

"We do not have a decision yet on the fate of the product," said Lester Crawford, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. "We do have a great deal of concern about this product and this class of products. We're telling consumers to check with their doctors, and telling doctors to consider alternative forms of therapy."Just from a practical perspective, it will be difficult to use Celebrex in trials because of the confusion and concern," said Charles Geyer, medical affairs director of the group, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project."

"Many of us thought the other shoe would drop," said Charles Burrows, a Doylestown orthopedic surgeon. "I do tell patients with a history of heart disease to get off" Celebrex.