Possible Heart Risk Cited for Chantix

The quit-smoking drug Chantix may slightly increase the risk of heart attack or related problems in people with heart disease, U.S. officials say. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the notice June 16. HealthDay News wrote about it. The notice was based on information from a new study. It included more than 700 smokers with heart disease. They were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group took varenicline tartrate (Chantix). The other group received fake pills (placebos). They took the pills for 12 weeks. Then researchers kept track of people for another 40 weeks. After all this time, 19% of the Chantix group still was not smoking, compared with 7% of the placebo group. During the study, more people taking Chantix had heart attacks than people taking a placebo. They were also more likely to need a procedure to open their arteries. The overall numbers were small.