The first Celebrex class action suit to be filed is believed to be the one submitted in Illinois, in December 2004. That same month, Pfizer announced that a recently performed clinical trial revealed that those taking Celebrex were at increased risk - over two times that incurred by taking a placebo - of experiencing a major cardiovascular episode. It would seem that the Illinois class action suit will be only the first of many. And yet Celebrex remains on the market.

Most drugs that we take are liable to have a wide range of potential side effects, most of which the majority of patients will never experience. For liability purposes, pharmaceutical companies print all conceivable side effects on their informational literature, and reading these before taking a medication can be a nerve-wracking affair. But even side effects that have been encountered by minimal numbers of people during clinical trials can find their way on to this literature, and while you may be one of the unlucky ones whose painkiller causes nausea, in most of these cases, the potential benefits far outweigh the unlikely event of developing a minor side effect that will cease once the medication has been stopped.

It is a similar argument that has been used in keeping Celebrex on the market - that the side effects encountered by some should not deny others the benefits that the drug has to offer. Used commonly as an anti-inflammatory and painkiller for conditions such as arthritis, it is understandable that this would be an attractive drug to many. But surely not when the side effect price is so high.

Rigorous clinical trials are performed on drugs before they reach the marketplace, but even these cannot predict all the various implications of using a drug in longevity. But it seems that there are too many highly effective drugs available today that cause life threatening side effects - Celebrex is only one of these. Patients surely must be asking themselves whether pharmaceutical companies are rushing apparently effective drugs to the marketplace without ensuring that they are completely safe for long-term use. Patients are responding in the only way that can really touch these companies, in this case Pfizer: by filing Celebrex class action suits.