P.M. BRIEFING : Pfizer to ID Heart Valve Patients

Pfizer Inc. said today that it has agreed to try to locate all patients equipped with an artificial heart valve made by a subsidiary, and later recalled, that has been linked to hundreds of deaths.

Pfizer, in a statement, said it hopes to establish a registry of all patients equipped with its Bjork-Shiley 60-degree heart valve “to facilitate the flow of medical information to these patients.”

Pfizer made the announcement a month after the Public Citizen Health Research Group, a private watchdog group here, petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to force Pfizer to inform patients of the valve’s potential for failure.

The valve, made by Pfizer’s Shiley Inc. unit, was implanted in an estimated 86,000 Americans between April, 1977, and November, 1986, when Pfizer pulled it off the market.