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CELEBREX HEART DANGER

THERE IS A WARNING TONIGHT CONCERNING THE POPULAR PAIN KILLING DRUG CELEBREX.
PFIZER, THE COMPANY THAT MAKES CELEBREX, HAS ANNOUNCED A GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED CANCER-PREVENTION TRIAL OF CELEBREX WAS HALTED AFTER PATIENTS TAKING IT HAD MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY HEART ATTACKS AS PATIENTS TAKING A DUMMY PLACEBO PILL.
(TALENT) HAS THIS IMPORTANT STORY

There is concern that the popular pain killing drug Celebrex could be giving patients more than twice as many heart attacks as patients taking a dummy placebo pill. As a result Pfizer, the company that makes the drug, has announced a government sponsored cancer prevention trial.

Until recently there were three of the so-called COX-2 inhibitor arthritis medications – Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra. Vioxx has already been taken off the market because of the heart attack concerns and there were rumors about the safety of Bextra.

It’s certainly going to be a huge blow to Pfizer that its blockbuster arthritis medicine is now a pariah. Celebrex is one of the popular COX-2 inhibitor anti-inflammatory medicines. It was touted as being able to provide pain and inflammation relief without the typical associated side effects of other anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, or aspirin; the risk of such problems as stomach upsets and gastrointestinal bleeding is lower with Celebrex.


But the irony is this: that bleeding risk turns out to be, perhaps, a cardiac benefit – keeping the blood thinned. That’s why we take aspirin to prevent a heart attack. Celebrex was being studied to see if the anti-inflammatory properties would carry over to other diseases, in this case, stopping the growth of adenomas, a type of tumor; the theory being that perhaps inflammation is a contributing cause of cancer, and that perhaps Celebrex could stop that.

Instead, what they found was that those taking Celebrex has twice the risk of having a heart attack. The heart attack findings for Celebrex have come only 10 weeks following the recall of Vioxx by Merck & Co. after findings that the drug doubled the incidence of heart attack and stroke among patients taking it to prevent colon polyps that cause cancer. Pfizer has already disclosed that it’s other COX2 painkiller Bextra is linked to an elevated risk of blood clots and heart attacks and strokes in cardiac surgery patients.

Said Dr. Robert Spera, a rheumatologist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York, “What do you tell patients?” However, Pfizer has also said that Celebrex was not shown to increase heart risk ina second long term trial designed to se if the drug could prevent colon polyps. But, this is unlikely to change public opinion.

More than 27 million people in the U.S, in New York and other states, have been prescribed Celebrex since its introduction in 1999. Shares of Pfizer, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 17 per cent in early trade after the unfavorable details emerged on the large, long term trial, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. They plunged as much as 24 per cent, wiping out about 441 billion in market value.

The next course of action for patients on Celebrex: Get in touch with your doctor and find out what to do as soon as possible.

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