Rauch of A.G. Edwards said: "Now that everybody is being blamed it makes it a more level playing ground for Celebrex."
Rauch and Ryan predicted many patients on Bextra would switch to Celebrex, particularly if they find that over-the-counter alternatives don't help, and want to return to a COX-2 inhibitor despite the risks.
Celebrex prescriptions were up 5 percent last month from February, Rauch said. Prescriptions had dropped 40 percent following Merck's September announcement.
But the analysts said keeping Celebrex on the market won't solve Pfizer's long-term problem -- losing patents on blockbuster drugs while nursing along a questionable pipeline of drugs in development.
During the next three years, Pfizer will lose patents on five drugs that totaled nearly $12 billion in sales last year -- including the antibiotic Zithromax, the antidepressant Zoloft and allergy reliever Zrytec.
Pfizer's pipeline includes treatments for insomnia and diabetes, among other diseases.
Concerns over the pipeline and upcoming lost patents have caused Pfizer's stock to sag. Pfizer executives recently released plans for significant cost savings, hoping to save $4 billion a year by 2008. That's about 12 percent of what it costs to run the company.
Though the FDA news was negative, Ryan said the market response was positive for the firm.
"When the stock stops going down on bad news, that's a major data point," she said.
