Pfizer Won't Talk About Chantix, So I Post Questions

Yesterday, I mentioned that I've tried to get answers from Pfizer's press office about how it plans to handle all the ugly reports coming out in connection with the use of its stop-smoking drug. I emailed some press contacts yesterday and one of them responded with a bland company statement, which partially tries to blame the agitation and suicidality and depression that seem to be popping up with Chantix use on nicotine withdrawal. Nice try, guys.

So I wrote them back with several questions that have so far gone unanswered.

1. Is Pfizer itself receiving reports from patients and doctors of suicidality, agitation and other events? If yes, how many?

2. How many Chantix Rx's have been written? US? Worldwide?

3. Does Pfizer plan to issue a dear doctor letter or any other advisory to healthcare providers in advance of any possible FDA finding? If not, why not?

4. Does Pfizer have any evidence through any clinical trials or doctor/patient reports of a possible connection between problems with Chantix (ie, suicide, suicidality, aggression, agitation) and an underlying DSM diagnosis of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia?

5. Does Pfizer have any evidence through any clinical trials or doctor/patient reports of a possible connection between problems with Chantix (ie, suicide, suicidality, aggression, agitation) and people who have previously failed a trial (smoking cessation related or not) of an anti-depressant (eg, patient who had reported problems on Chantix had also taken an SSRI in the past and had a bad reaction)?"

Pfizer, you guys need to answer these questions. Unlike the bad news Zoloft days of the early-90s (not that there still isn't bad news now, but it was really bad back in the day), the Internet is around now and your silence will only hurt your company's image.

I have a real fear--perhaps unfounded--that a portion of the people having bad reactions to Chantix are either people with underlying DSM conditions and, as we all know, they could be having very tricky reactions to this drug (and any drug) because they've had tricky reactions to other drugs. Maybe, as I noted the other day, these are exactly the people doctors need to be very careful with prescribing this drug for are people who've had bad reactions to Paxil or Prozac in the past.