The recommended therapeutic dose of Celebrex for OA is 200 mg daily administered as a single dose or 100 mg twice daily. For RA, the recommended therapeutic dose is 100 mg to 200 mg, twice daily. There are over four million people suffering from arthritis in Canada, with one in seven people affected.
Arthritis is also the most common cause of long-term disability in Canada.
Doctors will undoubtedly feel more confident prescribing a medication that is safer and we'll likely see an improvement in patient compliance because the 'fear factor' associated with traditional anti-inflammatories is greatly reduced. A recent newspaper article linked Celebrex with adverse events in the United States. A medical review of the individual reports indicates no direct connection between usage of the drug and any of the reported events. More importantly, Celebrex was associated with significantly fewer upper GI ulcers than traditionally used arthritis medications naproxen and ibuprofen. In the US, 2.5 million Celebrex prescriptions have been filled since the drug was launched twelve weeks ago.