Celebrex aggressively marketed after Vioxx recall
Every Vioxx victim remembers September 30, 2004. That was the day when Merck announced that it was recalling Vioxx. Now the way our businesses work, this was terrific news for Merck's competitors. In particular, Pfizer. Pfizer makes two competitive drugs: Celebrex and Bextra, that were struggling against the more aggressively marketed Vioxx.
Within hours of Merck's announcement to withdraw Vioxx, Pfizer jumped on the opportunity and issued a press release entitled "Pfizer Affirms Celebrex Safety" saying that over 27 million patients in the United States have been prescribed Celebrex (celecoxib), which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998.
"Pfizer is confident in the long-term cardiovascular safety of Celebrex," said Dr. Joe Feczko, Pfizer's president of worldwide development. In fact Pfizer went further and added, "In a recent FDA-sponsored study of 1.4 million patients, those who received Celebrex demonstrated no increased risk of cardiac events."
"Patients taking COX-2 inhibitors may be confused and should speak with their doctors," Dr. Feczko said. "Because of its outstanding long-term safety profile and broad indication base including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and acute pain, Celebrex is an appropriate treatment alternative." (Related article: One study found that Celebrex was less dangerous than Vioxx but it did not prove that Celebrex was safe)
Pfizer's aggressive marketing helped the company. In October, the first full month of data after the recall of Vioxx, sales of Celebrex topped $260 million, or 63.5 percent of the market for cox-2 inhibitors, according to IMS Health data. In September, Celebrex had accounted for just 48.7 percent of the market for the new-generation painkillers. Bextra sales in October totaled $148 million or 36 percent of the $409 million cox-2 inhibitor market. In September, Bextra had just 23.5 percent of that market.
Pfizer commented that Celebrex was the first COX-2 inhibitor, a class of medicine designed to relieve pain without the serious gastrointestinal side effects associated with older non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines. In 2001, Pfizer introduced Bextra (valdecoxib), its second COX-2 inhibitor, for use in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Bextra’s cardiovascular safety profile is also well established in long-term studies, Pfizer added.
Pfizer claimed that data show that since the introduction of COX-2 inhibitors, the rate of hospitalizations for gastrointestinal events associated with long-term arthritis treatment has declined significantly.
It is important to point out that there is no definite talk to recall Celebrex since the data is still being analyzed.
Recommended article: Limelight focused on Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra (all Cox-2 drugs)
