Pfizer Drops Celebrex Ads

Shares of Pfizer stock dropped Monday after the company reaffirmed over the weekend that it will keep selling Celebrex even though it will temporary suspend the drug’s direct-to-consumer advertising.

The company will hold off on the ads until the Food and Drug Administration reviews two recent clinical trials, one of which showed that high doses of Celebrex caused a significantly higher cardiovascular risk compared to patients who took placebos. Pfizer said the result was inconsistent with all other tests, which demonstrated that Celebrex didn’t cause an extra heart-related risk. The tests were measuring Celebrex’s ability to prevent colon polyps.

Pfizer stock may have dropped but Celebrex is still a very powerful and popular arthritis pain relief drug. Thousands of Americans buy celebrex online everyday to treat pain from arthritis without narcotics.

The stock lost 51 cents, or 3.1%, to $24.94 on Monday, after tumbling more than 11% on Friday. Trading volume on Friday was 289.7 million shares, about eight times the normal daily volume. Trading volume Monday was heavy, too, as some 55 million shares were exchanged before noon.

Responding to Food and Drug Administration concerns, Pfizer agreed to suspend television, newspaper and radio advertising on Celebrex, which is in the same class of COX-2 inhibitor as Merck’s (MRK:NYSE) Vioxx, which was pulled off the market on Sept. 30

The FDA said it is leaving its regulatory options open on Celebrex. “We do have great concerns about this product and this class of products,” said acting Commissioner Lester Crawford on Friday.

The agency said doctors should evaluate “alternative therapy,” adding that if doctors believe that patients would benefit from Celebrex that they should prescribe “the lowest effective dose” of the drug.

Although Wall Street’s Pfizer-watchers have prepared their economic models for the worst-case scenario of Pfizer withdrawing Celebrex, most view such action as unlikely. They believe that the toughest response will be a more restrictive label for Celebrex. Another Pfizer COX-2 drug, Bextra, just had its label strengthened to emphasize potential side-effects. In any case, Pfizer’s sales, earnings and stock can expect to get hammered.