Clinical Trial Finds Celebrex Heart Risk

Officials at Pfizer Inc. in New York Friday said results of a clinical trial show an increased cardiovascular risk for patients using Celebrex.

Celebrex (celecoxib) is a COX-2 inhibitor used for arthritis and pain. It is in the same drug family as Vioxx, which Merck pulled from the market this fall after studies showed a 50 percent increase in the risk of heart attacks for patients who took the drug longer than 18 months.

Pfizer officials said one of two long-term cancer trials using Celebrex has shown an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events compared to patients taking a placebo. A second similar cancer study did not show any increased risk.

The cancer study in question showed patients taking 400 mg to 800 mg of Celebrex daily — twice the dosage given to arthritis patients for pain — had a 2.5 fold increase in their risk of having a major cardiovascular event. Based on the findings, the National Cancer Institute, which sponsored the trial, has stopped using Celebrex in the study.

The two cancer studies were following patients over a five-year period and had enrolled some 3,600 participants, some of whom had been in the study for more than four years.