Pharmacia Wins FDA OK for Bextra

Pharmacia Corp. won U.S. approval for the painkiller Bextra, a successor to its top-selling Celebrex that may work faster with fewer side effects. Pharmacia shares rose 9.3%.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Bextra, part of a class of painkillers known as Cox-2 inhibitors, to treat osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and menstrual pain. Pharmacia and partner Pfizer Inc. will start selling Bextra, also known as valdecoxib, in early 2002, said Pharmacia spokesman Craig Bucholz.

Bextra won approval two or three months sooner than analysts expected, giving Pharmacia a head start over Merck & Co., which filed for approval in October for a successor to its Cox-2 painkiller, Vioxx.

Shares of Peapack, N.J.-based Pharmacia rose $3.85 to $45.20, their biggest one-day gain in 19 months. Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., fell 31 cents to $64.59, both on the NYSE.