The ending of the Celebrex advertising campaign with one of the largest budgets allotted for prescription drug ads totaling $87.6 million may have a bitter effect on the media, now that Vioxx campaign that contributed overall $78 million to the media budgets has been stopped abruptly after the drug was withdrawn from the market.

Pfizer Inc. announced its decision to end the advertising campaign for its top product Celebrex, although it will not withdraw the drug from the market after a study showed increased risk of cardiovascular disorders associated with the drug.

The Food and Drug Administration had already hurt media income by the regulation issued weeks after Vioxx withdrawal requiring antidepressant makers to put a "black box" warning on labels, pointing out that the drugs could provoke suicidal thoughts and actions in some children and teenagers. These warnings do not allow drug companies to use “reminder” ads merely stating the name of the medication without further information.
The FDA that had earlier warned doctors to prescribe alternatives to Celebrex and use the drug in the lowest effective dose approved of Pfizer’s decision to withdraw ads from television, radio, newspapers and magazines. The magazine ads may appear for a while due to the long lead time of magazine advertising, according to Pfizer spokeswoman Mariann Caprino.

"We’re leaving Celebrex on the market because it is an appropriate option for many, many patients," Pfizer CEO McKinnell said on ABC’s "This Week." "Physicians do need to be fully advised of the risks and particularly this new information."

Celebrex is Pfizer’s leading product with 10% of the company’s business, totaling $260.2 million in sales for October, against $266 million in September. Worldwide sales of $4 billion were projected for Celebrex in 2004.

Pfizer appeared to be more market-driven than Merck that chose to withdraw its Vioxx from the market after the study showed an increased cardiovascular risk, a move that was likely to please the medical community more than investors. On the other hand, Pfizer can take more time now as Celebrex is at the time the only option for patients who cannot take the regular painkillers.

Most analysts agree that on a large scale the class of drugs known as Cox-2 inhibitors have less than brilliant prospects.

"No matter what strategy these companies take," says Arthur Caplan, chairman of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, "this is one of the great drug-company disasters of all time."
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are now likely to swoop on the Cox-2 class of painkillers after the two resonating scandals involving Merck’s Vioxx and Pfizer’s Celebrex.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans will look into the safety of the painkillers in an advisory committee meeting in 2005.