Well some folks have been gleefully posting doom and gloom, and
instant death from the Cox-2 drugs.  It may or may not be pulled.
Here is another perspective.  In the meantime discuss it with your Dr.
and make an informed choice, try to ignore the zealots, crusaders, and
media hype and focus on what is the right choice for you.  

By Toni Clarke
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Some analysts are betting Pfizer Inc. won't have
to withdraw its arthritis drug Celebrex but they do expect sales to
fall after a study of the drug in cancer patients showed it increased
the risk of heart attacks.

Pfizer has said it has no plans to withdraw Celebrex, which had annual
sales of nearly $2 billion last year. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, which on Friday urged doctors to consider prescribing
alternatives to Celebrex, plans to make additional announcements about
the drug over the next few days.

Several analysts believe Celebrex is mostly safe when used at the
typical levels of 100 milligrams or 200 milligrams. The trial of
patients with tumors known as adenomas took either 400 milligrams or
800 milligrams of the drug. Previous trials of Celebrex in arthritis
and Alzheimer's have not shown an increase in heart risk.

Two-thirds of patients in the cancer trial took the drug for two
years, some up to four years. Merck & Co. Inc.'s recently withdrawn
arthritis drug Vioxx, which is similar to Celebrex, showed it doubled
the risk of heart attack and stroke, but the risk only emerged after
patients had been taking the drug for 18 months or more.

"We do not believe there will be a withdrawal at this point," said
Winton Gibbons, an analyst at William Blair & Co. "Our read of the
data so far suggests that high dosing is the primary risk driver, with
duration of therapy possibly exacerbating the risk."

Pfizer's shares fell 11.2 percent on Friday after it said a trial
sponsored by the National Cancer Institute showed patients with
adenomas that grow from glandular tissue had more than twice the risk
of heart attacks than those taking a placebo. On Monday they fell an
additional 5.2 percent to $24.41 on the New York Stock Exchange.

"We believe the product will be able to stay on the market because the
studies only show a safety problem in high risk cancer patients," said
David Moskowitz, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey.

The FDA has asked Pfizer to temporarily stop advertising Celebrex. The
drug has been one of the most heavily advertised in pharmaceutical
history.

Concerns are not limited to Celebrex, however. Question marks also
hang over Pfizer's Bextra, another COX-2 inhibitor.

But George Grofik, an analyst at Smith Barney Citigroup, said he puts
the risk of a worldwide withdrawal of Pfizer's COX-2 franchise at
about 30 percent. "COX-2s may have legitimate benefit in a small
sub-population of patients at higher gastrointestinal risk," he said
in a report.

However, he said "it is clear COX-2 use is likely to decline
precipitously after this news," and cut his earnings forecast to $2.05
from $2.29.    Continued ...

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The studies did show an increased risk of cardiac events at that dose
(400mg/day). However, I believe that with proper warning labels the drug
will be left on the market. The marketting of the product will change or
perhaps even cease as it's no longer the 'no side effect arthritis
wonder drug', but if there are any reasonable people left in DC the
attitude of informed choice for patients should prevail and celebrex
will still be available.

When you say you've been without, do you mean you stopped taking it?

Ari