The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked Pfizer Inc. to immediately pull all magazine advertisements that suggest the company's cholesterol-lowering medication, Lipitor, causes fewer side effects than the drug's competitors. According to the FDA, recent advertisements appearing in magazines such as Reader's Digest and Time indicate that Lipitor "lacks" the side effects of other cholesterol drugs. The ads also state that other drugs in Lipitor's class of medications, statins, may cause a severe debilitating muscle condition.

Lipitor's label, however, states that all statins increase a patient's chance of developing myositis and rhabdomyolysis, potentially fatal conditions that cause muscle pain and muscle deterioration and may lead to kidney failure symptoms. Pfizer, which has promised to correct the advertisements, has been cited by the FDA several times for improperly marketing Lipitor.