Doctor ordered off-label use of Pfizer drug for Blue Jackets players' pain

Published Sept. 4, 2009 at 12:56 a.m.
A Columbus Blue Jackets physician used a drug at a dosage approved only to treat menstrual pain on hockey players who had pain from injuries or surgeries.The order was written in a Sept. 5, 2003, letter from a doctor to the team's athletic trainer. That letter then was copied and used by Pfizer Inc. sales representatives to market the drug Bextra to physicians in Ohio and West Virginia.Doctors can prescribe medications for uses not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, but drug manufacturers are prohibited from marketing medicines that way.


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