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Pfizer recalled its anti-smoking drug Chantix due to high levels of an ingredient that is tied to an increased risk of cancer. In a notice posted to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website on Thursday, Pfizer said it was recalling Chantix 0.5 mg and 1 mg tablets to the consumer level due to the presence of N-nitroso-varenicline. Long term ingestion of N-nitroso-varenicline can be associated with a “theoretical potential increased cancer risk in humans,” the notice said. However, there is no immediate risk to patients taking the drug. The company said it is undertaking the recall as a precautionary...

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is recalling 12 lots of its popular anti-smoking drug Chantix after the company discovered the products contain high levels of a chemical that may cause cancer.The voluntary move expands on a recall that covered nine lots of Chantix, which goes by the generic name varenicline, and was issued to warehouses earlier this month.Pfizer said it found N-nitroso-varenicline, which is a type of organic compound called a nitrosamine, in the product at levels higher than the company’s so-called acceptable intake limit.Nitrosamines can develop naturally in a broad range of items, including meats, cheeses and cosmetics. The FDA has...

Just saw that Liotta-Chantix commercial again. Is it me or does Liotta's face have that Botax/plastic look to it? IMO, the guy is kinda creepy. Wasn't it him who played that creepy cop chasing after Kurt Russel's wife? Don't remember the name of the movie but he played the perfect part.

According to Dr. Gilbert Ross, Medical and Executive Director, American Council on Science and Health… Smoking is America’s most important, and preventable, public health problem: It is estimated that almost a half-million of us will succumb prematurely to smoking’s deadly effects each year, with twenty-times that number sickened. Among our 43 million smokers, over half try to quit each year, yet less than one in twenty succeed. The FDA approved products—patches, gums, and drugs—help “boost” that to about one in ten, an abysmal “success” rate of 10 percent. Yet, the official line, from the FDA and the CDC on down,...

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it will convene a public meeting in October to review the risks of psychiatric and behavioral side effects with Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix. […] Since 2009, Chantix has carried the government’s strongest safety warning—a “black box” label—because of links to hostility, agitation, depression and suicidal thoughts. The warning was added after the FDA received dozens of reports of suicide and hundreds of reports of suicidal behavior among patients taking the smoking-cessation drug. …

A study published Monday in a Canadian journal concluded that smokers who take Chantix, one of the most popular smoking cessation drugs, could increase their risk of heart problems. Chantix (varenicline) could raise the risk of heart attacks and irregular heartbeats, said one of the study authors, Dr. Sonal Singh, an assistant professor of general internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The heart problems are the latest in a growing list of concerns raised by patient reports, lawsuits and studies since the drug's approval in 2006. The drug could cause changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed...

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, submitted years of data through “improper channels.” Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “We’ve had a major breakdown in safety surveillance,” said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems — including reports of...

James Elliott thought his recurring nightmares of exploding bombs, dogs eating corpses, a child's head blown off its body and other war horrors from his Iraq tour had ended in 2004 when he returned to his home in Silver Spring. The Army veteran sniper was earning high grades in college and got engaged to be married. His post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had disappeared. He even signed up for a Veterans Affairs experiment to kick his habit of nearly three packs of cigarettes a day using the drug Chantix, and was succeeding. But after two weeks on the drug, his night...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a warning Thursday on the anti-smoking drug Chantix, advising medical examiners "to not qualify anyone currently using this medication for commercial motor vehicle licenses." The FMCSA oversees the interstate trucking and bus industry. Chantix, made by Pfizer, Inc., was attacked in a study by a non-profit group on Wednesday for possible links to seizures, dizziness, heart irregularity, diabetes and more than 100 accidents. The Department of Transportation alerted its agencies about the study, asking the office directors be aware of the report's warnings and recommendations. The Federal Aviation Administration banned the drug for...

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday it would no longer permit pilots or air traffic controllers to use the smoking cessation drug Chantix, citing potential side effects that could pose a threat to the safe operation of aircraft. The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory in February, saying that some Chantix users had developed a variety of serious psychiatric symptoms, and that some had committed suicide. An F.A.A. spokeswoman, Laura Brown, said the agency had approved the use of Chantix for airline pilots and flight controllers last year, but was notifying 150 pilots and 30 air traffic...

Melinda and Kenny Peterson wanted to kick their two-pack-a-day smoking habit. In early January, the Green Bay couple started taking three-month prescriptions of Chantix, a new anti-smoking pill. About six weeks later, they weren't smoking at all. But what the Petersons didn't know was that as they were weaning themselves off cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert: Some patients taking the powerful drug had experienced serious neuropsychiatric symptoms. And Pfizer, the maker of Chantix, had recently added a warning about these symptoms in a more prominent position in the drug's information packet, at the FDA's urging....

FDA: Connection between Chantix, psychiatric problems ‘increasingly likely’The Associated Press updated 1:33 p.m. PT, Fri., Feb. 1, 2008WASHINGTON - Government regulators said Friday the connection between Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is "increasingly likely."The Food and Drug Administration began in November investigating reports of depression, agitation and suicidal behavior in patients taking the popular twice-daily pill.The agency's announcement comes two weeks after Pfizer added stronger warnings to the drug. In doing so, the company stressed that a direct link between Chantix and the reported psychiatric problems has not been established, but could not be ruled out.In a...