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Pfizer has announced patients taking its arthritis drug Celebrex in a long-term cancer-prevention trial had more than twice the number of fatal or non-fatal heart attacks as those taking a placebo.
The National Cancer Institute sponsored the Celebrex trial, and Pfizer said the patients included in it are no longer being given the drug due to the heart risk link. Celebrex is one of Pfizer''s biggest selling drugs. In September, Celebrex rival drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the market after links to increased risk of heart attacks and stroke were discovered.
After the Vioxx recall, the safety of the entire class of drugs, called COX-2 inhibitors, was questioned. Celebrex sales in October topped $260 million, or 63.5 percent of the market for COX-2 inhibitors, according to IMS Health data.