Pfizer resuming ads for Lipitor after controversy

Television ads for the world's top-selling drug, cholesterol fighter Lipitor, are back, six months after Pfizer Inc. pulled them amid charges its use of a celebrity doctor endorser who's never practiced medicine misled the public.

This time, Pfizer is leaving out the celebrity.

In the new ads, the endorser is a talent agent from the San Francisco Bay area who tells viewers he started taking Pfizer's Lipitor after surviving a heart attack last year.

The ads began running Tuesday and will be part of an open-ended national campaign that also includes print ads in newspapers and magazines, said John Sage, head of Pfizer's marketing team for Lipitor.

Lipitor generates more than $12 billion a year in revenue for New York-based Pfizer. Its patent expires in 2011, yet ads for the pill have been off the air since February.

Pfizer had run frequent TV ads from late 2006 until then in which artificial heart inventor Dr. Robert Jarvik endorsed Lipitor, appearing to be giving medical advice. While he holds a medical degree, Jarvik never completed licensing requirements to practice medicine.

Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, pulled the ads in February as members of Congress were investigating and media outlets were reporting on that conflict and Pfizer's use of a stunt double in an ad that showed Jarvik rowing.

"Although it wasn't clearly our intent, the ads created misimpressions and distractions around what we were trying to do," Sage said late last week.

He said the man in the ad, John Erlendson, is "a real Lipitor patient, who is very representative of people with" cholesterol problems.

"Based on consumer research, he resonates with them," Sage said, adding that advertising directly to consumers remains an important way to reach patients and that about 85 million people who have seen such ads have discussed a health condition with their doctor as a result.

Erlendson, 58, said in an interview that he has a family history of heart disease but tried to reduce his cholesterol with diet and exercise. A few months before his heart attack, he said, an MRI scan showed no significant plaque buildups.

Erlendson, of Lafayette, Calif., tells viewers in the ad that the heart attack was a wake-up call for him but that they should talk to their doctor about whether they can do something to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke. The ads also give a Web site and phone number for information about Lipitor.

Also Tuesday, researchers presented data from a five-year, Pfizer-funded study of Lipitor showing that, on average, 80 milligrams of Lipitor daily reduced risk of a first heart attack or other cardiovascular complication about 20 percent, compared with the common 10-milligram starting dose. The high dose also reduced risk, by up to nearly 30 percent, for subsequent complications, including heart attacks, fatal or nonfatal strokes, chest pain, hospitalization and certain types of chest surgery.