Celebrex

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Celebrex®

Celebrex arthritis drug entered the U.S. marketed in January 1999 with record sales within the first 15 weeks. It did not take long for people to begin to question the "super aspirin" as reports linking Celebrex to death and serious side effects began to come in just three months on the market. Individuals looking for pain relief due to arthritis were suffering death, gastrointestinal hemorrhages, cardiovascular problems, kidney and liver damages, and ulcers.

The FDA began to send Celebrex manufacture, Pharmacia, warnings that the agency was concerned with the promotional advertisements that were misrepresenting the safety of Celebrex. The lack of changes implemented by the Celebrex manufacturer led to the FDA finally issuing a letter to the drug company on April 6, 2000. The agency was not satisfied with the company's representation of the safety information, the unsubstantiated comparative claims, the lack of fair balance, and the misrepresentation of efficacy information, stating, "your representatives continue to engage in violative promotional practices".

In one year, Celebrex brought in $2.2 billion attributed to the company's aggressive marketing campaigns. Celebrex advertisements claimed that the arthritis medication was safer and gentler on the stomach compared to older NSAIDS. A study performed on Celebrex, called the CLASS study, concluded a "clinically meaningful" safety advantage of Celebrex over older NSAIDS had not in fact been established.

The CLASS study also failed to show that Celebrex worked any more safely than NSAIDS regarding ulcer complications. Celebrex manufacturer then began to make television ads without naming Celebrex to avoid Federal laws requiring side effects to be stated on the advertisements. Both Celebrex maker and rival Vioxx made continuous attempts to have label warnings removed in order to gain the upper hand on one another.

The tight competition between the two arthritis drugs was highly criticized for sacrificing patient safety. Most recently, Pharmacia experienced large profit loss after physicians and insurers have grown tired of the pricey medication that has not yet proven to be more effective than a standard painkiller.

If you have taken Celebrex arthritis drug and have suffered adverse side effects because of it, please contact us to speak with a Celebrex lawyer.