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Celebrex (generic name: celecoxib) is one of the top ten best-selling drugs in the United States and is produced by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Pharmacia. Annual revenue from Celebrex sales has reached close to three billion dollars. About 27 million patients have been prescribed Celebrex in the U.S. alone. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Celebrex in 1999 to treat the acute pain associated with osteoarthritis, adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and primary dysmenorrheal (associated with menstrual cramping).
Celebrex has been linked to an increased risk of blood clots, heart attacks and strokes. Celebrex is used to treat arthritis. Like Vioxx and Bextra, Celebrex is part of a class of drugs known as Cox-2 inhibitors. Celebrex was the first of Pharmacia's Cox-2 inhibitors. Both Vioxx and Bextra have been taken off the market. Celebrex has been allowed to remain on the market, but recently, the FDA concluded that Celebrex must carry the strongest warnings allowed under FDA regulations.?
A study from the Cleveland Clinic appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association and was based on an analysis of previous clinical trials. In a study of more than 8,000 patients that compared the Cox-2 inhibitor rofecoxib (Vioxx) with the traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) naproxen (Aleve), the risk of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack, chest pain related to heart disease, stroke, sudden death, and blood clots, was more than two times higher in the rofecoxib group than in the naproxen group.?Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx in September 2004. Since the Vioxx recall, questions have arisen about, Celebrex and Bextra, as well as non-prescription drugs such as naproxen (Aleve). All pain drugs in the class known as cox-2 inhibitors increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a top scientist told a US regulatory panel. Dr Garret Fitzgerald, a Cox-2 expert and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, said the body reacts in the same way to Merck's Vioxx as to Pfizer's Celebrex and Bextra. Dr Fitzgerald said the drugs create an imbalance in the body's cardiovascular system that leads to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.?The annual rates of heart attack in both the Celebrex and Vioxx studies were increased compared to a review of studies containing a total of more than 48,000 patients. In those studies, 0.52% of patients taking an inactive placebo pill had a heart attack each year. The annual rate of heart attack was 0.74% for patients taking rofecoxib and 0.80% for those taking celecoxib.
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