Lipitor ads featuring Jarvik get pulled

WASHINGTON — When "diet and exercise isn't enough," Pfizer still wants consumers to ask their doctor about Lipitor — just not Dr. Robert Jarvik.

On Monday, Pfizer took the former Utahn off the mound as pitchman for the world's best-selling medication, after his credentials — in medicine and in his own exercise regimen — came under fire.

In the ads, Jarvik touts the benefits of Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug.

But members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has raised questions about the ads, saying they could be misleading to consumers because Jarvik appeared to be giving medical advice, even though he is not licensed to practice medicine. While Jarvik holds a medical degree, he did not complete the certification requirements to practice medicine.

Also, in a letter to Pfizer in August 2006, three former colleagues of Jarvik's at the University of Utah complained the ads erroneously identified Jarvik as "inventor of the artificial heart." That distinction, they said, should go to Jarvik's mentor, Dr. Willem J. Kolff, and his associate, Dr. Tetsuzo Akutsu.

Pfizer subsequently changed its ads to identify Jarvik as the inventor of the "Jarvik artificial heart," but Jarvik's former colleagues, members of a large team that worked on the heart, were not entirely satisfied, according to Dr. Donald B. Olsen, a veterinarian who worked on the heart and is president of the Utah Artificial Heart Institute. Olsen said he was recently contacted by the House committee.

A long-simmering dispute over assigning credit for the artificial heart boiled over again during a conference last December at the University of Utah. Dr. Jarvik did not attend the conference, which marked the 25th anniversary of the heart's experimental use to extend the life of Dr. Barney Clark, a Seattle dentist.

During the meeting, another former Utah colleague of Jarvik's, Dr. Clifford S. Kwan-Gett, stated that the Jarvik series of hearts were simply different versions of prototypes that Kwan-Gett had made more than a year earlier.

Jarvik's company, Jarvik Heart, subsequently posted a history of the artificial heart's development on its Web site, giving his own account of the heart's development. That posting said Jarvik's design overcame two problems of the heart developed by Kwan-Gett.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., disclosed that Pfizer agreed to pay Jarvik at least $1.35 million under a two-year contract that expired next month.