Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, is betting big on the safety of its cox-2 painkiller, Celebrex. The company has agreed to finance a study with an estimated cost of more than $100 million to examine the safety of Celebrex in arthritis patients prone to heart attack and stroke. To lead the study, Pfizer has turned to an early critic of the cox-2 painkillers, Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic.
