Pfizer seeks FDA approval to prescribe Celebrex to toddlers as young as 2 (NaturalNews) Drug giant Pfizer Inc. is set to meet this Wednesday with a panel of advisors from the Food and Drug Administration to review the company's request to expand the use of its painkiller Celebrex -- which has been linked to serious heart risks -- in children as young as 2. Celebrex -- the first FDA-approved Cox-2 inhibitor on the market -- was shown in recent tests to double or even triple the risk of heart attack, stroke and death. The anti-inflammatory drug is the last Cox-2 inhibitor left on the market after Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx in late 2004, following news that it doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients. A 2004 study funded by the National Cancer Institute to test the effects of Celebrex in preventing colon cancer was halted early after patients experienced high rates of heart attack, heart death and stroke. Patients taking a daily 400 mg dose of the drug had 2.5 times as many heart attacks, strokes and deaths as control patients, while those taking 800 mg of the drug per day had 3.4 times the cardiovascular events as the control group. Though experts are calling for Celebrex to be pulled from the market, Wednesday's meeting between Pfizer and the FDA will determine if the drug's benefits outweigh its risks in children as young as 2 who have arthritis. Lipitor class action lawsuits expand; Pfizer cover-up alleged (NaturalNews) More consumers of Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor have joined a class-action lawsuit charging that the company deceived the public by failing to adequately warn doctors and patients of the drug's side effects, according to Jimmy Moore, a health blogger and author of "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb." Patients taking Lipitor -- the best-selling cholesterol medicine in the world with 22 million users -- began suing Pfizer in June, alleging that the negative physical side effects such as muscle pain, nerve damage, nightmares, memory loss and other central nervous system problems were not properly explained when they were prescribed the drug. "These lawsuits charge that Pfizer failed to adequately warn both doctors and consumers of the drug's more serious and somewhat permanent health risks -- risks that Pfizer was well aware of in its own clinical studies of statin usage," said Mark Jay Krum, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the class-action suit, in a statement. "Pfizer has apparently engaged in a campaign of misinformation, designed to downplay and cover up Lipitor's more serious and irreversible side effects, and is willing to promote the drug at any cost." The Common Voice reports that sales of Lipitor exceeded $12 billion in 2005, and that in response to the lawsuit, Pfizer took out fill-page ads in major newspapers around the country touting the safety and effectiveness of Lipitor. Krum says his lawsuit does not seek to dispute the drug's effectiveness, but rather its safety. Pfizer to Pay Tens of Millions for Deaths of Nigerian Children in Drug Trial Experiment (NaturalNews) Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed against it by Nigerian parents who claim the company caused harm to their children by using them as guinea pigs in a nonconsensual, unlicensed drug trial. The case began in 1996, when Pfizer needed a human trial to gain approval for its new antibiotic Trovan. When an epidemic of meningitis, cholera and measles broke out in Kano, Nigeria, the company quickly put together a research team and flew them to that country. Pfizer set up a tent right near the medical station where Doctors Without Borders were giving free treatments and recruited 200 children to participate in an unlicensed drug trial. Parents say they were not told that proven medications were being distributed only yards away, that their children were being enrolled in a drug trial, or that animal studies had suggested that Trovan could cause liver and joint damage. Eleven of the 200 children in the study died, and parents claim that others suffered from brain damage, organ failure and other severe side effects. The case broke when Pfizer researcher Juan Walterspiel, who had been schedule to take part in the trial but was left behind, wrote a letter to Pfizer's then chief executive William Steere, saying that the Kano study was "in violation of ethical rules." "Some of the children were in critical condition and most of them malnourished, which made oral absorption even more unpredictable," he wrote. "At least one died after a single oral dose." Class action lawsuits were filed against the company in a variety of jurisdictions in Kenya and the United States, while various levels of the Nigerian government also filed their own lawsuits against the company. The current settlement comes in a class action suit filed in Nigeria. In addition to a pending class action suit in the United States, Pfizer may still face criminal prosecution in Nigeria. In January 2008, a Nigerian judge issued arrest warrants for several top company officials after they failed to appear in court. Sources for this story include: www.independent.co.uk. | 