PFIZER RETREATS AMID VIAGRA SAFETY CONCERN SEE-SAW
biz.yahoo.com
Wednesday June 10, 2:21 pm Eastern Time
NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - Shares of Pfizer Inc (PFE - news) eased Wednesday amid renewed investor skittishness about the safety of Viagra, the company's impotence drug.
Analysts said jitters were spurred by a Wall Street Journal article that underscored the fact that several of the 16 men who have died after using the impotence pill had been taking other medications that had not been formally tested with Viagra in human trials.
The article said the situation had caused increasing concern about the possibility of adverse reactions when Viagra is taken with other medications.
Pfizer shares jumped $4 on Tuesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said 16 men had died after taking Viagra. But the agency repeated an earlier FDA statement that no deaths among patients had been directly linked to the drug.
Investors apparently took comfort Tuesday from the FDA statement, which added that any given adverse reaction ''may actually have been due to an underlying disease process or to another coincidental factor.''
The FDA last month had reported six deaths among men taking the drug, for which 1.7 million prescriptions have now been written since it was approved by the agency in late March.
The Journal said that although the 16 deaths represented a tiny percentage of patients that had taken Viagra, some doctors were worried about drug interactions.
Three of the men who died were given nitroglycerin by medical personnel despite warnings by Pfizer and the Viagra drug label that combining Viagra with such ''organic nitrates'' could cause a dangerous fall in blood pressure.
At least five of the men who died were also taking a medication to control high blood pressure, including three taking the Abbott Laboratories (ABT - news) hypertension drug Hytrin (terazosin) which is also used to treat prostate problems.
The FDA said several patients who died were also taking insulin and others took a variety of commonly used prescription drugs, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY - news) anti-cholesterol medicine Pravachol (pravastatin) and Bristol-Myers diabetes drug Glucophage (metformin).
EVEREN Securities analyst Jeffrey Kraws said the FDA report indicated Viagra was a safe drug because the deaths were of men aged 48 to 80, most of whom had pre-existing health problems.
''Seven patients had heart conditions and seven had blood-pressure problems,'' Kraws said, arguing that none of the deaths had been linked to Viagra or any of the non-nitrate drugs used by the patients. ''There's nothing to be concerned about.''
Edward Froelich, a drug analyst for the Pershing Division of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, said he believed evidence to date showed Viagra was safe although it was possible future problems could arise and imperil the drug.
''Maybe these people who died would have died anyway, even if they hadn't taken Viagra. And exertion during sex could be a factor,'' Froelich said.
He said it will take another six months to get a clearer idea whether interactions with non-nitrate drugs are a real problem, adding it would have been virtually impossible for Pfizer to have tested Viagra in combination with all other commonly used medicines.
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