This should come as no surprise to anyone, but today the FDA announced that it would require a new black box warning on certain smoking-cessation drugs, namely Chantix and Zyban, and would extend the warning to Wellbutrin (Zyban's name as...
Posted in Furious Seasons on July 1, 2009 10:21 AM
Freda Lewis-Hall, a psychiatrist, is set to become Pfizer's new chief medical officer, putting her in charge of docs who work for the company designing clinical trials and doing marketing to other docs. Frobes.com had an interview with her yesterday....
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 6, 2009 12:01 AM
First quarter sales of Pfizer's stop smoking drug Chantix were down 36 percent from the same period last year to $177 million. Of course, this is being driven by reports that the drug caused suicidal ideation (and actual suicides) in...
Posted in Furious Seasons on April 28, 2009 11:53 AM
Yesterday, Bnet.com reported that 14 pharma companies had gotten warning letters from the FDA, which noted that the companies were misrepresenting their drugs' indications and were hiding side effect and risk information in various text ads that popped up during...
Posted in Furious Seasons on April 8, 2009 12:03 AM
I've not written much about Chantix since last year, simply because the noise around Pfizer's stop-smoking pill had seemed to die down after oodles of reports of suicide, suicidality and odd behavior connected to the drug. Now, JAMA has a...
Posted in Furious Seasons on March 11, 2009 12:03 AM
Here's a report from the CBC's website on what's going on with Chantix, Pfizer's much-advertised stop-smoking drug, in Canada. Known as Champix up north, the drug has generated over 800 complaints to health authorities in Canada. Most of the complaints...
Posted in Furious Seasons on February 5, 2009 12:04 PM
Some of you know that yesterday Google announced that it was working with the CDC to monitor flu-related searches in its search engine ("flu," "flu symptoms," "muscle aches") and, further, to pinpoint what part of the country the searches are/were...
Posted in Furious Seasons on November 12, 2008 12:03 AM
Chantix, Pfizer's stop smoking drug, topped the list of drugs causing problems that led to adverse events reports being filed with the FDA in the first quarter of 2008. The stop smoking drug, which sure unglues people like a bad...
Posted in Furious Seasons on October 23, 2008 12:03 AM
From the journalism machine that is Pharmalot we learn of the first lawsuit filed against Pfizer over allegations that Chantix, its stop smoking drug that's acting a whole lot like Paxil in some cases, caused the suicide of a man:...
Posted in Furious Seasons on July 10, 2008 12:14 PM
ABC News reports that at least three US Reps are calling for an end to tests of the stop smoking drug Chantix, which has been linked to erratic behavior in some vets in the VA-administered study. Reportedly, the VA knew...
Posted in Furious Seasons on June 19, 2008 12:01 AM
The Washington Times and ABC News have teamed up on an investigative report in which it's revealed that the VA has been enrolling Iraq vets and others as research subjects for drugs with dangerous side effects. Case in point: one...
Posted in Furious Seasons on June 17, 2008 08:11 AM
Look, I expect Pfizer to fight like hell to protect its stop smoking drug Chantix from going up in smoke, as it were, but yesterday the company's defense of the drug took an odd turn: "Pfizer Inc. said Thursday it...
Posted in Furious Seasons on June 6, 2008 12:01 AM
Many of you have likely seen the Chantix TV ads in the past, the ones with the tortoise and the hare in them. Those ads disappeared not long after New Year's. In the wake of massive bad publicity around use...
Posted in Furious Seasons on June 4, 2008 12:00 AM
The news just keeps weirder and weirder around Pfizer's stop smoking drug Chantix. This from the WSJ's Health Blog: "More than 100 traffic or personal accidents, like falling, have been linked to Chantix in a recent study by outside researchers;...
Posted in Furious Seasons on June 2, 2008 12:40 PM
Looking to counter the very bad publicity its very tricky stop smoking drug, Chantix, has received the last two weeks, Pfizer will roll out special ads in five big newspapers today, including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times....
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 29, 2008 12:01 AM
Troubling news just keeps rolling on Chantix, the stop smoking drug, which was last week banned for use by pilots and air traffic controllers by the FAA and was also banned for use by commercial bus and trucks drivers due...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 26, 2008 08:35 PM
Read it and gasp. From upstate New York: "Chittenango Middle School arrested for selling prescription drugs to students. On May 8th, school officials found pills, including Chantix and anti-anxiety medicine, in the possession of some students who were selling and...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 23, 2008 12:27 AM
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates commercial trucking and bus driver licenses interstate, today issued a warning about Chantix, the stop smoking drug which yesterday was the subject of a ban by the FAA. The warning advised medical...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 22, 2008 05:13 PM
I've had a look at the report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices that spurred yesterday's FAA ban on the use of Chantix, the stop smoking drug, by pilots and air traffic controllers and that report is a doozy....
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 22, 2008 09:16 AM
The FAA has banned the use of the stop smoking drug Chantix after numerous reports of erratic behavior associated with use of the drug that have resulted in a public health warning from the FDA. Pilots and air traffic controllers...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 21, 2008 04:04 PM
On Friday, the FDA issued a formal public health advisory on Chantix, the stop smoking drug made by Pfizer that's been leading to all manner of suicides, suicidality, erratic behavior and reported cases of drug-induced depression. It's like the strangest...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 19, 2008 12:01 AM
This is a remarkable account of a woman in Texas who'd smoked for 33 years and was pressed to take Chantix, Pfizer's stop smoking pill that sure keeps acting like the worst of the SSRIs, by her doctor. The woman...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 17, 2008 11:41 AM
This a very sad story and should serve as a warning to anyone taking anti-depressants, particularly someone new to them or going through a dose change. A London lawyer was shot dead by police last week after he came home...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 12, 2008 12:01 AM
Yesterday, my good friends at Abbott Labs rolled out phase II data on its experimental adult ADHD drug known as ABT-089. One assumes that the phase III trials are well underway and that the drug will have a much sexier...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 8, 2008 12:05 AM
OK, the hed is sarcastic because yet another person trying to stop smoking by using Chantix (Champix elsewhere) wound up depressed from using the drug, had erratic social behavior (meaning the drug made him angry) and so on. In this...
Posted in Furious Seasons on May 1, 2008 11:23 AM
A fascinating article by the AP today looking at the phenomenon of the stop smoking drug Chantix and other anti-addiction pills that seem to be causing depression in some users, as well as other odd reactions (eg, mania among some...
Posted in Furious Seasons on April 23, 2008 12:16 PM
A read left a comment yesterday describing hers and her husband's experience with Chantix, Pfizer's star-crossed stop smoking drug: "My husband and I started taking Chantix Jan 7, 08. Quit smoking Jan 29, 08. Quit Chantix Feb 18, 08 due...
Posted in Furious Seasons on April 14, 2008 12:01 AM
Several very interesting pieces have drifted through my pea brain in the last few days--some of them worthy of analysis on their own were there the time--and I wanted to pass them along. I'm busy finishing a freelance piece and...
Posted in Furious Seasons on February 26, 2008 12:01 AM
Pardon my really sarcastic attitude for a moment, but how the hell else does one properly reply to the inanity of federal regulatory agencies when it is pressed right in your face. Yet again. OK. Strange as this might sound,...
Posted in Furious Seasons on January 24, 2008 12:14 AM
Bowing to reality, Pfizer today updated the label on its stop-smoking drug Chantix to reflect numerous reports of suicidal ideation, erratic behavior and depression associated with the drugs use. "Pfizer said Chantix users should be observed for 'serious neuropsychiatric symptoms,...
Posted in Furious Seasons on January 18, 2008 07:41 AM
I hope all of your had a nice Christmas. I've been working my butt off at the shelter and haven't had much time for writing per se. But I wanted to pass along a few items that caught my eye...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 28, 2007 01:29 AM
Here's the second installment of my year-end wrap up. So much happened in mental health news this year that I broke it into two posts. 2007 was that busy of a year. The first part is here and now for...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 27, 2007 12:01 AM
The other day Pfizer, maker of the stop smoking drug Chantix (Champix elsewhere), was ordered by Australian authorities to put warnings related to risks of suicide, suicidality and depression linked to the drug's use on its packaging before the drug...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 14, 2007 09:24 AM
OK, this is weird. There are hundreds of reports of suicide, suicidality and depression connected to the stop smoking drug Chantix (Champix elsewhere) among people who've taken the drug in the US. They've been reported to the FDA, which presumably...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 10, 2007 02:25 AM
Just as I suspected all along. Back in August, some doctors wrote a letter to the American Journal of Psychiatry outlining a case of Chantix/Champix-induced mania in a patient with bipolar disorder who was otherwise med-compliant. Here's their assessment: "[O]ur...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 6, 2007 10:19 AM
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...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 6, 2007 12:03 AM
I tried contacting Pfizer again yesterday to get some answers about how they are addressing all the bad news around Chantix. Pfizer did not return my call. We'll see what today brings....
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 5, 2007 12:01 AM
The bad news just keeps rolling in on Pfizer's stop-smoking drug, this time from the UK: "The Bolton News is reporting 39-year-old Omer Jama, a popular television editor, slashed his wrists just weeks after beginning a course of pills to...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 4, 2007 12:03 AM
The syndicated column "Peoples Pharmacy" has a column out this week on reports it's been getting about reactions to Chantix. Depression and suicidality and so on. Thankfully, the FDA is looking into this, although why Pfizer isn't just putting a...
Posted in Furious Seasons on December 3, 2007 01:38 AM
A reporter at a Dallas TV station did some good digging and requested data on complaints filed with the FDA related the stop-smoking drug Chantix. Here's what the FDA reported: " After an initial report on Albrecht's death, News 8...
Posted in Furious Seasons on November 30, 2007 12:05 AM
Much credit to Ed Silverman at Pharmalot for getting this out there, as today the FDA announced that it has begun a safety review of the smoking cessation drug Chantix, made by Pfizer, over reports of suicidality and erratic behavior...
Posted in Furious Seasons on November 20, 2007 01:01 PM
Some posts I did a ways back about possible weird reactions to the smoking cessation drug Chantix (Champix in Europe) continue to bring in disturbing accounts from people who've taken the drug. Here's one: "I'm a healthy 36 year old...
Posted in Furious Seasons on November 14, 2007 12:01 AM
As I noted yesterday, a Dallas musician wound up being shot to death after having a bad reaction to a combination of Chantix, a smoking cessation cum anti-depressant made by Pfizer, and some booze. He apparently tried to break into...
Posted in Furious Seasons on September 20, 2007 12:03 AM
OK, this is a sad, weird story. A Dallas musician and his girlfriend decide to quit smoking and begin taking Chantix, made by Pfizer, which is approved by the FDA for smoking cessation. A few days later, the musician goes...
Posted in Furious Seasons on September 19, 2007 11:23 AM