Pfizer down as FDA intervenes

Shares of Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, were down 1.6 percent in early trading on Thursday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked the drug company to remove an arthritis drug, Bextra, from the market after tests showed that the risks to the patients using it outweighed the benefits.

The FDA also asked Pfizer to place a strong warning on another of it’s drugs, Celebrex. Both drugs are cox-inhibitors, a class of drugs strongly suspected of raising the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients using them.

This was a partial reversal for the FDA, which in March had allowed both drugs to stay on the market as long as they carried risk warnings, at least until the FDA had reviewed data concerning the two drugs.

Pfizer agreed to quit selling Bextra in the U.S. until further discussions with the FDA could be held, despite the fact that Pfizer had earlier insisted that its drugs were safe.

In a related development, the FDA also announced Thursday that it would review a proposal by Merck, another drug company, to return its drug Vioxx to the market. Vioxx is in the same class of drugs as Bextra and Celebrex. Shares in Merck were down on this news in early trading Thursday.

In a third related announcement, the FDA asked all drug companies to include prominent risk warnings on their cox-2 class of drugs.

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