Do I have a Celebrex Case?

Ban or No Ban, Celebrex Sales Are Expected to Dwindle

The future of Celebrex, the best-selling arthritis pain medicine, may be determined as much by Dr. Jason Faller and other physicians treating arthritis patients as federal regulators.

"Certainly I will be disinclined to start patients anew on the drugs," Dr. Faller said. Still, he said Celebrex and Bextra, a similar arthritis drug also made by Pfizer which has also raised heart attack concerns, provide a useful alternative for some patients who are not helped by older over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, the generic name for Advil.

Both Celebrex and Vioxx, a similar medicine which Merck stopped selling in September after it was linked to heart attacks, are generally no more effective than over-the-counter medicines, said Dr. Marcia Angell, the former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. "There was never much reason for these drugs in the first place," she said. "So one should accept virtually zero side effects from these drugs."

NY TIMES