Succumbing to criticism that its ads featuring the controversial doctor were disingenous, the drugmaker has stopped running the ads and Jarvik will no longer be used to promote the best-selling cholesterol pill or any other Pfizer med.

You may recall that the celebrated physician, known for inventing the artificial heart, became the focus of attention because he isn’t licensed to practice medicine. As a result, he can’t write a prescription for Lipitor, which Pfizer pays him a reported $1.35 million to promote in widely circulated televisions ads.

Then we learned that, even though Jarvik looks good in one of those ads rowing across a beautiful lake, it wasn’t really him in that boat. The ad agency used a sit-in. The revelation further whet the appetite of one Congressional committee, which is investigating pharma’s use of celebrity spokespeople. Given the debate over DTC advertising, we wondered whether Jarvik was hurting the brand amid accusations that the ad is misleading.

“The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately, led to misimpressions and distractions from our primary goal of encouraging patient and physician dialogue on the leading cause of death in the world - cardiovascular disease. We regret this. Going forward, we commit to ensuring there is greater clarity in our advertising regarding the presentation of spokespeople,” says Ian Read, Pfizer’s head of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, in a statement.

Not surprisingly, John Dingell and Bart Stupak, the Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce committee, who opened the probe, were pleased. “Pfizer’s decision was a wise one,” Dingell says in a statement. But it’s not over, Stupak adds: “We will continue to investigate the deception that occurs in direct-to-consumer advertising of medications, including Pfizer’s Lipitor campaign.” And they want to meet with Jarvik, too. Here’s the letter Pfizer sent them.

In any event, the move is in keeping with sentiment expressed by a wide array of marketing experts, as well as Pharmalot readers. A recent unscientific reader poll found that 69 percent of 316 respondents believed Pfizer should have dumped Jarvik after the misleading nature of the ads was disclosed.

Just in case you may miss these ads, here’s one…