The drugmaker reached tentative settlements with some groups of plaintiffs who allege the painkillers caused heart attacks and strokes, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers at three firms involved in the litigation.
The firms represent more than 200 of the thousands who sued Pfizer over the two meds, but the drugmaker is still holding [...]

Nothing like a new use for aging or troubled drugs to make a marketer’s day. The combination of the two Pfizer pills “work through different mechanisms of action, but there is a synergistic effect that inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells,” Xi Cheng, assistant research professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, [...]

Patients taking the largest dose of 400 mg twice a day tripled their chance of a heart attack or stroke, compared with people taking a placebo, according to a study presented today at the American College of Cardiology meeting. The study confirms earlier concerns that prompted the FDA three years ago to warn that Celebrex [...]

A federal judge in Chicago last Friday denied Pfizer’s efforts to obtain confidential peer review documents related to Celebrex and Bextra from the Journal of the American Medical Association, according to Science magazine.
In January, Pfizer filed a motion asking for peer-review documents it had subpoenaed from 11 studies on the drugs published by the various [...]

That’s the conclusion in a piece in the latest issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The only exception is naproxen, according to the authors, who reviewed a meta-analysis published two years ago in the British Medical Journal, 138 clinical trials and observational studies involving Merck’s Vioxx, Pfizer’s Celebrex and Bextra, and such [...]

In a blistering editorial in Science magazine, editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy notes that Pfizer has issued subpoenas to the New England Journal of Medicine in order to wade through confidential reviews of published studies of its Celebrex and Bextra painkillers, which are the subject of numerous product-liability lawsuits. As he sees it, Pfizer wants it both [...]

Frustrated by reluctant doctors? At a loss for a new strategy? Convinced ridiculously long TV ads will excite consumers? Forget it. What you really want is for your rival to have a catastrophe. Well, it seems the Celebrex marketing team had its prayers answered the other day when Australia yanked a Cox-2 painkiller, Novartis’ Prestige, [...]

Hard to believe, but it may be true. Mark Calcavecchia is quoted as saying he loves the painkiller - as well as Aleve. He made his remarks in response to reports that the use of steroids and other performance-enhancers has been the talk of the golf world, which occurred after Gary Player said last week [...]

Pfizer attorney Bob Schultz thought he had a slam dunk when he asked a Madison County judge to sign a protective order that would have set confidentiality rules in a class action suit over Celebrex and Bextra. He even assured the judge that Steve Tillery, the plaintiffs’ attorney, was on board. Uh-uh. Two days after [...]

In early August, there will be a hearing in federal court in San Francisco to determine whether Celebrex can increase the risk of serious cardiovascuar events - otherwise known as heart attacks and strokes - and under what circumstances.
Over the course of two days, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer will be faced with reams [...]