Business

Tue May 27 22:03:23 PDT 2008

WASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking a closer look at Pfizer Inc’s anti-smoking drug Chantix after reports of patients experiencing hundreds of serious problems, an agency official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the agency is reviewing all the reported cases. "We’re are looking at them, but it takes a while," she said in an interview.

The drug, which aims to help smokers quit their habit in part by mimicking some of nicotine’s effects, has been linked to psychiatric side effects, but U.S. researchers last week found hundreds of reported cases of accidents, heart trouble, vision loss and other problems.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Lisa Richwine; editing by John Wallace)

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