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TV Ads For Celebrex to Resume After Side Effects Scare

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will launch a new television commercial for its once popular arthritis painkiller Celebrex after over two years in the dark because of serious side effects linked to the drug.

The advertisement will run for 2 1/2 minutes—five times longer than most commercials, leaving enough time to reveal the risks and benefits of Celebrex. Many consumers wrongly assume the drug was taken off the market with Vioxx, another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication with severe side effects risks.

Celebrex Risks

Although Celebrex belongs to the same class of drugs as Vioxx, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration believes that the benefits of the painkiller outweigh the risks. However, Celebrex does carry a black-box warning, alerting doctors and patients of the adverse events associated with the use of the drug including:

  • Heart attack
  • Stroke
  • Death

Television and print advertising for Celebrex was halted after Vioxx was pulled from the market and before the FDA could cite Pfizer for overstating the benefits and downplaying the risks of Celebrex and Bextra—another similar painkiller—in many of their ads.

Bextra was recalled in 2005 and print ads for Celebrex debuted last year. In the new TV commercial, the risks of the painkiller are mentioned early. A lot of drug advertisements have faced scrutiny for giving side effect information only at the end.

“They do a responsible job,” says Steven Nissen, chair of heart medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who viewed the commercial but favors barring all consumer drug ads. In 2005, the pharmaceutical industry implemented new regulations to improve advertisements.

Injured by a dangerous drug? Please contact us today to speak with a defective drug attorney about how you may be eligible to recover your damages.

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