CardioExchange Archive

December 12th, 2012

FDA: Small, Nonsignificant Risk from Chantix

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA today updated its safety review of the smoking cessation drug varenicline (Chantix, Pfizer). A large meta-analysis, which the FDA had required Pfizer to perform, found a higher rate of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients taking varenicline than in patients taking placebo. However, the increase in risk was very small and did not achieve statistical significance. […]

---

May 14th, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: Week of May 14th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week Richard discusses studies of glucose, insulin, and potassium for MI, elective PCI with and without surgical standby, and varenicline and CV risk.

---

July 4th, 2011

Meta-Analysis: Increased CV Risk Associated with Varenicline (Chantix)

Larry Husten, PHD

The anti-smoking drug varenicline (Chantix, Pfizer) is associated with an increased risk for serious adverse cardiovascular events, according to a new meta-analysis published in CMAJ. In the meta-analysis, Sonal Singh and colleagues analyzed data from 14 double-blind randomized trials involving 8216 subjects. The rate of serious adverse cardiovascular events was 1.06% (52/4908) among varenicline recipients versus […]

---

June 16th, 2011

FDA: Varenicline (Chantix) May Increase Risk for CV Events

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA said that the anti-smoking drug varenicline (Chantix) may increase the risk for cardiovascular events in people who already have cardiovascular disease. The new information will be added to the drug’s label and Medication Guide for patients. The FDA does not recommend that people with cardiovascular disease stop taking varenicline, but it says that physicians […]

---