Reply #18: Bad Day for Drug Companies and Patients [View All]

[54anickel]

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/041217/health_pharmaceuticals_3.html

LONDON (Reuters) - Investors in pharmaceuticals were dealt a triple whammy on Friday as Pfizer Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and Eli Lilly and Co all shocked the market with bad news about key products.
Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, saw its stock fall as much as 17 percent after trial data for its popular arthritis drug Celebrex showed an increased risk of heart attack.

The medicine is of the same type as Merck & Co Inc's (NYSE:MRK - News) Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in September after tests showed it too posed a cardiovascular threat to patients.

Pfizer said it had no plans to recall Celebrex but investors feared there was mounting evidence that the danger seen with Vioxx may be common to all drugs in the so-called COX-2 class.

"This does not bode well for COX-2s in general," said Ira Loss, an analyst at Washington Analysis.

Reflecting the concerns, shares in GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG, which are developing newer COX-2 medicines, also fell.

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