When I saw this ad this morning I was struck that it seemed there was more warning than ad. (Timing it I get roughly 50 seconds of promo to 40 seconds of spooky warning.)
Then the clincher: The big brag for all this risk is that 44% of people quit smoking “at the end of” 12 weeks vs. 18% for the placebo. That risk/reward ratio doesn’t sound good to me!
I had never heard of the drug. A couple Google searches got me to sponsored links like ChantixSuicideLawsuit.com, Chantix-Leagal.com and this October 23 WSJ Online report.
It appears the Food and Drug Administration may upgrade warnings after a spate of road-traffic accidents and seizures involving people on the drug:
Pfizer, which has been struggling to overcome nearly a year of negative publicity involving Chantix, questioned the report’s conclusions. It noted that the institute’s figures are based solely on voluntary reports by doctors and others of incidents that occurred with patients taking the drug. Pfizer said these reports “are often unverifiable and lack sufficient medical information to draw any conclusions.”
Doesn’t that sound eerily like what we used to hear from cigarette companies?