Quitting Smoking Should Decrease Your Cardiovascular (CV) Risks, but it May Not if You Are Taking Chantix

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently notified physicians, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare providers that Chantix (verenicline) may be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events such as angina, myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack, peripheral vascular disease or the need for a cardiac cath or cardiac revascularization.

A recent clinical study of 700 smokers with cardiovascular (CV) disease who were treated with either Chantix or placebo pills showed that the participants who were taking the Chantix had a higher rate of CV events as opposed to the participants who were taking the placebo pills. The results prompted the FDA to inform healthcare providers that the Warning and Precautions section of the Prescribing Information will be changed to inform the general public of the increased risk of cardiovascular events while taking Chantix. The FDA indicated that they will continue to inform and update the public as more information becomes available.

This is not the first problem to be associated with Chantix, which is marketed by Pfizer. In the past, the FDA required Chantix to carry a black box warning, the strongest safety warning, due to reports of people taking Chantix who developed depression, suicidal thoughts, attempted suicides or wrongful deaths due to successful suicidal actions.

Unfortunately, this is a very common and serious problem with many medications that are allowed to be placed in the market. Many drugs or medications are approved by the FDA and prescribed to the general public before being thoroughly investigated or studied. It is not until the medication is taken by you, me, your child, your mother, your father, your spouse or a loved one, who are the “general public” and not participants in a short lived, controlled, clinical study, that the real and sometimes deadly side effects are uncovered. Even more frightening is that some of these “side effects” or “adverse events” were seen in the clinical trials or clinical studies and yet the drug or medication was still allowed to be placed on the market at the expense of you or a loved one’s health or life, just for the financial gain of the pharmaceutical company. A pharmaceutical company can make millions or even billions of dollars off of the sales of a certain medication before, in its eyes, it is forced to pay an injured victim a very, very small fraction of their profit.

Since 1958, our experienced medical and legal teams have been well aware of the catastrophic injuries or death that can occur when dangerous products are placed on the market even after the large corporations or drug companies knew of the hidden dangers. Our extensive knowledge has led to having billions awarded on behalf of our injured victims. Product liability or medication error cases present some of the most difficult and complex cases for many lawyers to handle and that is why you need a law firm that has a proven record of experience and knowledge in the area of dangerous pharmaceuticals.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a medication or drug error, please feel free to contact one of our experienced Philadelphia product liability attorneys or a risk free, no fee, and confidential consultation.