PAINKILLER Celebrex now has warning

Pfizer plans to continue to sell the drug.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Celebrex, the nation's leading arthritis painkiller, raises the risk of heart attack when taken at very high doses, the drug's maker said Friday in the latest blow to a class of powerful and widely touted drugs.
Pfizer Inc. said it would not pull the drug from the market, but a study testing it for cancer prevention was halted.
Some doctors said people should stop taking that medicine and others like it, called cox-2 inhibitors, until their safety is more thoroughly studied.
And the National Institutes of Health ordered a full review of all studies involving the cox-2 drugs.
The Celebrex warning comes little more than two months after its one-time competitor, Vioxx, was pulled from store shelves for the same concerns.
"We thought Celebrex was safe and the problem was just with Vioxx," said Dr. Richard Hayes, a New York cardiologist who is recommending his patients switch from Celebrex to nonprescription medicines such as Advil to treat pain.
"The problem is more complex than we thought."
FDA advice
The Food and Drug Administration, criticized in recent months for not taking aggressive action, advised patients and doctors to evaluate alternative medicines and to use the lowest effective dose if continuing Celebrex.
"We do have great concern about this product and the class of products," said acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.
The disclosure, which came from a study of Celebrex as a cancer prevention drug, sent Pfizer's shares tumbling because of fears that it could cripple sales of what had been the most-prescribed drug for treating arthritis.
The drug industry has already been under fire for numerous high-profile debacles: Merck & amp; Co.'s withdrawal of Vioxx, the failure of Chiron Corp. to deliver half the country's flu vaccines, and disclosures that drug companies had stifled negative clinical trial data from studies examining antidepressant use in children.