Sales of Celebrex are expected to top $2 billion this year.
Celebrex doubled the risk of serious cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and death, according to a separate analysis in the journal Circulation released Wednesday.
That makes Celebrex too risky to be used for polyp prevention, according to an editorial in the New England Journal by Bruce Psaty of the University of Washington and John Potter of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Concern over medication such as Celebrex has grown in the past two years. Doctors stopped prescribing Celebrex to patients in the two studies in 2004 after noticing the heart risks, Hawk says. Doctors continued to monitor patients’ health. Because of the potential side effects, the Food and Drug Administration imposed a “black box” warning last year on Celebrex and other prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The makers of two similar drugs, Vioxx and Bextra, pulled those products because of the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
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