Report Links Pfizer Drug To Accidents, Heart Trouble

A nonprofit drug safety group is raising concerns about serious side effects newly linked to Pfizer Inc.'s popular smoking-cessation medicine, Chantix, casting a pall over a drug already dogged by psychiatric issues and focusing the spotlight anew on the Food and Drug Administration's monitoring capability.

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a Horsham, Pa., organization that seeks to improve drug safety, released findings Wednesday on its review of adverse-event reports filed with the FDA. The reports included 988 serious incidents linked to Chantix in the U.S. during last year's fourth quarter -- the most for any medication in that period. ...