Pfizer said Sunday that it would immediately stop advertising Celebrex, its best-selling arthritis pain reliever, to consumers after a study showed that high doses were associated with an increased risk of heart attacks.

The suspension of advertising, which is indefinite, includes television, radio, newspaper and magazine ads and other promotions to consumers, a Pfizer spokeswoman, Mariann Caprino, said Sunday.

Some magazine ads may appear for a few more weeks because of the long lead time of magazine advertising, she said.

Pfizer appears to have had little choice in deciding to end the advertising campaigns. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it was considering regulatory measures that could include severe label warnings or even requiring that the drug be withdrawn in the United States.

The federal agency agreed with the advertising withdrawal, Caprino said, adding, “We discussed it with the FDA and we all concurred that it was the appropriate step.”

Pfizer, based in New York, spent $71 million advertising Celebrex to American consumers in the first nine months of this year, one of the biggest ad budgets for a prescription medicine.

Those advertisements have annoyed some consumer advocates and scientists, who argue that they encouraged overuse of Celebrex among patients for whom the medicine offers little benefit over older drugs.

Analysts say that Pfizer is among the most aggressive marketers of drugs to both doctors and consumers.

Last month, the FDA forced the company to withdraw two television ads for Viagra, its medicine for erectile dysfunction, saying the ads overstated Viagra’s effectiveness.

Although consumer advertising will be suspended, Pfizer plans to continue marketing Celebrex to doctors, Caprino said.

The suspension of consumer marketing may cause the sales of Celebrex and Bextra, a related drug of the group of COX-2 inhibitors, to drop. Sales of the drugs had been expected to total more than $4 billion worldwide this year, almost 10 percent of Pfizer’s revenue.

Even before Sunday’s statement on advertising, analysts had predicted that sales of the drugs would fall in 2005 because of the questions about their safety.

Still, Pfizer has no plans to stop selling Celebrex, Pfizer chief executive, Henry McKinnell, said in an interview on “This Week” on ABC.

The company will work to inform doctors of Celebrex‘s potential risks, he said.

“We’re leaving Celebrex on the market because it is an appropriate option for many, many patients,” McKinnell said.

But George Sard, chairman of Citigate Sard Verbinnen, a crisis communications firm, said Pfizer was making a mistake by trying to keep Celebrex on the market.

“Pfizer will inevitably have to recall Celebrex,” Sard said, “and I believe they are making a strategic error not doing it immediately.”

Pfizer maintains that Celebrex has not been shown to be dangerous when taken at the usual dose levels for arthritis patients. The heart risk in the study disclosed on Friday occurred only when patients took Celebrex at two to four times the usual dose for long periods.

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