April 28th, 2006
Pfizer Boldly Advertising Celebrex Again
By Alex Berenson
New York Times
The ads feature a man holding a boy’s hand as they walk up a stadium staircase. “52 steps won’t keep you from taking him out to the ball game,” they say.
But a heart attack would.
As it resumes advertising its controversial painkiller Celebrex, Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker, is offering consumers a mixed message. Sixteen months after the company stopped advertising Celebrex over concerns about its heart risks, Pfizer has returned with new ads that juxtapose folksy imagery with a jarring, bold-face warning about the drug’s dangers. “Important Information: CELEBREX may increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke that can lead to death,” the paragraph-long caveat begins.
Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, hopes the campaign will revive Celebrex sales, which plunged last year during the advertising moratorium. But the new campaign has raised the ire of consumer groups, who say that Celebrex is so dangerous that Pfizer should stop selling it, not encourage patients to use it.
The campaign is more evidence of the drug industry’s dependence on consumer advertising to prop up sales, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, a frequent critic of drug makers."There’s no objective evidence of any unique benefit with this drug, and there is objective evidence of a unique risk,” said Dr. Wolfe said.
Pfizer stopped advertising Celebrex in Dec. 2004, after Merck stopped selling Vioxx, a similar drug, because of its heart dangers. Four months later, federal regulators ordered Pfizer to put a so-called black-box warning on Celebrex, detailing its risks.
In 2004, before the advertising moratorium, Pfizer spent $117 million promoting Celebrex. That year, Celebrex sales were $3.4 billion worldwide. In 2005, during the ad moratorium, sales plunged to $1.7 billion.
Pfizer says that all painkillers carry some risk and that its new ads disclose Celebrex’s potential dangers.
“Celebrex has proven to be an important option for many patients,” said a Pfizer spokesman, Andrew McCormick. The Food and Drug Administration has reviewed the new campaign, Mr. McCormick said. Pfizer has not yet decided whether it will expand the campaign to television.
When it was introduced in 1998, Celebrex was thought to be safer for the stomach than older painkillers like naproxen, whose brand name is Aleve. But Celebrex’s stomach benefits have never been proven, and clinical trials have repeatedly linked Celebrex to heart problems. In addition, Celebrex is far more expensive than the older painkillers, costing about $3 a pill, compared to a few cents for naproxen or ibuprofen.
“If it were my money, I wouldn’t pay $2.85 for it,” said Michael Krensavage, a drug industry analyst at Raymond James. “I would try an ibuprofen first.”
Comments
- Posted by Judy Waters on May 11th, 2006
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Posted by allisun335 on May 11th, 2006
in march 2003 i suffered a heart attack. i was taking celebrix at the time, .
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Posted by Watchdog on May 16th, 2006
Judy sounds like an astroturfer
I do not know what I would do without my Celebrex. I just did without it for 4 days and the pain had me crying for three of those days. It had me completly down in bed crying in pain. Now it is taking a few days to get it back in my system. I do not ever want or desire to be without it ever again. RISK OR NO RISK. Judy