Now consider this impact...you might want to change your stock outlook...
A large safety study has found that patients given Xeljanz, a Pfizer drug approved for various inflammatory diseases, had health issues like major heart complications and cancer at a higher incidence than those who got a different kind of anti-inflammation drug. The results could spell trouble for Xeljanz and other drugs that work in a similar way, according to analysts. Pfizer's study enrolled nearly 4,400 rheumatoid arthritis patients who were at least 50 years old and had at least one other cardiovascular risk factor. The main goal was to analyze malignancies as well as major adverse cardiovascular events, and see whether Xeljanz was as safe as a TNF inhibitor — the class of drugs which includes AbbVie's Humira and Amgen's Enbrel. Results show that among Xeljanz-treated patients, 98, or 3.37%, had a major cardiovascular event sometime between when they started treatment to 60 days after they stopped. In the TNF group, 37, or 2.55%, experienced such an event. Malignancies, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, were seen in 122, or 4.19%, of patients given Xeljanz and 42, or 2.89%, of patients given a TNF inhibitor. With regard to Xeljanz, Pfizer said heart attack and lung cancer were the most frequently reported major cardiovascular events and malignancies, again excluding non-melanoma skin cancer.