Chantix: Stop Smoking Pill No Magic Bullet
The FDA is investigating whether a Pfizer Inc. drug used to help smokers quit cigarettes (Chantix) also increases suicidal thoughts and violent behavior:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Carter.Albrecht.Jeffrey.2.592619.html
An interesting quote from the story:
“Regulators said it was unclear if Chantix was directly responsible for the behavior, since nicotine withdrawal often aggravates existing mental problems.”
The man’s behavior seems a bit extreme, even if there were existing mental problems, which the interview with his parents doesn’t seem to support, and despite the fact that he’d apparently been drinking.
Another interesting quote:
“Pfizer said Tuesday it added information about the reports to the product’s label, but stressed “there is no scientific evidence establishing a causal relationship between Chantix and these events.”"
I think this is what they mean by “plausible deniability”: it couldn’t possibly be that someone at the FDA had a lapse in judgment, or that somebody at Pfizer fudged some numbers to get a $101 million dollar windfall for the company by pushing to get this drug to market despite maybe having some disturbing “edge” cases in the clinical trials…
