Pharmaceutical Drug Litigation Updates

Analysis: Corporate defendants rack up wins in test trials

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/us-trials-bellwethers-idUSTRE79U4WB20111031

Analysis: Corporate defendants rack up wins in "test" trials

By Moira Herbst

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:26pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A string of courtroom victories by drugmakers in key product-liability trials could be a signal that these and other companies can beat back claims in upcoming cases against them.

AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L), Merck & Co (MRK.N) and Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) are among the companies to win closely watched bellwether cases in recent years.

Bellwether cases are sample trials ordered by judges in situations where hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs have similar claims consolidated before a single state or federal court. Typically, a judge chooses a few individual lawsuits to proceed ahead of the rest. As their name suggests, the result of these battles can be predictive.

A win by the defendant might prompt settlements or spur plaintiffs to drop other cases.

Upcoming test trials include the first in federal court against Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) for allegations that its Yaz/Yasmin birth-control pill caused heart attacks and other medical problems. An Illinois federal court set the trial for January.

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Pfizer Settles Neurontin Suit Over Minister’s Death

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aympI.JcS50s

Pfizer Settles Neurontin Suit Over Minister’s Death

By Jef Feeley

May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. agreed to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging its Neurontin epilepsy medicine caused a retired minister to commit suicide two months after he started taking the drug.

Lawyers for New York-based Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, told a judge in Nashville, Tennessee, they resolved claims by the family of Richard Smith, which were set to go to trial today. It’s the second settlement of claims that officials of a Pfizer unit knew the epilepsy drug posed a suicide risk and failed to disclose it to patients and doctors.

“I’m very pleased the case has been resolved,” U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger told lawyers for Smith’s family and the company today. The terms weren’t disclosed. Smith, 79, was a retired Church of Christ minister, according to court papers. He was taking the drug to deal with chronic pain, not epilepsy, the filings show.

Pfizer faces more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing it of illegally promoting Neurontin for unapproved uses and helping to cause some users’ suicides. In March, a Boston jury ordered Pfizer to pay more than $140 million in damages to an insurer over its marketing practices in connection with the drug. Pfizer has denied any wrongdoing in connection with its handling of Neurontin.

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Pfizer Said to Settle Neurontin Suicide Lawsuit for $400,000

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aD7E7ibNON8A

Pfizer Said to Settle Neurontin Suicide Lawsuit for $400,000

By Jef Feeley

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay about $400,000 to settle a lawsuit mid-trial that blamed its Neurontin epilepsy medicine for helping cause a Massachusetts man’s suicide, two people familiar with the accord said.

Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, agreed yesterday to resolve claims by Hartley Shearer’s family that Pfizer’s Warner- Lambert unit knew Neurontin posed a suicide risk and failed to disclose it to patients and doctors.

Shearer’s wife and son sued the New York-based drug company in federal court in Boston. The settlement is the first of its kind for suicide claims tied to Neurontin, said the two people, who declined to be identified because terms of the deal aren’t public.

“Pfizer is pleased to report that the Shearer case, pending before USDC Judge Young in Boston, has been settled on favorable terms,” Rob Haralson, a spokesman for Pfizer said. “While Pfizer maintains that it has strong defenses to each of plaintiff’s claims, and has great confidence in the jury and the Court, Pfizer agreed to settle the case for less than its defense costs remaining in this case.”

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Jury selection begins in Neurontin suicide trial

Quoted from http://lawyersusaonline.com/blog/2010/03/29/jury-selection-begins-in-neurontin-suicide-trial/

Jury selection begins in Neurontin suicide trial

By Nora Lockwood Tooher
Staff writer
Published: March 29, 2010

 

BOSTON - Jury selection began Monday in the second wrongful death trial alleging Pfizer’s off-label promotion of its anti-epilepsy drug Neurontin caused a patient to commit suicide.

Hartley Shearer, 57, a Massachusetts resident, took Neurontin from October 2000 to February 2002 when he committed suicide, according to lead plaintiffs’ trial counsel Ronald Rosenkranz, a partner at Finkelstein & Partners, Newburgh, N.Y.

According to court documents, Shearer was prescribed Neurontin for treatment of his paralysis, but became depressed and suicidal after taking the drug.

About 1,200 lawsuits have been filed, alleging that Warner-Lambert, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2000, knew before the drug was introduced in 1993 that it increased the risk of suicide.

Although Neurontin was approved only as an anti-seizure medication, the drug company aggressively promoted a variety of non-approved uses, including pain control, the suits allege.

 

The federal lawsuits have been consolidated in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The first wrongful death trial ended bizarrely in a mistrial in July 2009, after an anonymous donor offered to put money in a trust fund for the 10-year-old daughter of a Susan Bulger, a 39-year-old Massachusetts woman who committed suicide after taking Neurontin.

Houston attorney Mark Lanier headed the plaintiffs’ trial team in the Bulger trial, and was expected to represent Shearer’s family. But in a change of plans, Lanier is not on the Boston trial team. He is still, however, scheduled to try the third Neurontin personal injury case, slated for trial in state court in Tennessee in May.

Opening arguments are expected Wednesday in the Shearer trial on Wednesday before Judge William G. Young. Rosenkranz is dividing plaintiffs’ trial team duties with Jack W. London, a solo attorney in Austin, Texas, and Kenneth B. Fromsom, a partner in Finkelstein & Partners.

While the Bulger was picked by Pfizer, the Shearer case was picked randomly, according to Rosenkranz.

The trial is expected to last about two and a half weeks.

Pfizer's "Witness Tampering" Motion in Neurontin Case Is Denied

Quoted from http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10004813/pfizers-witness-tampering-motion-in-neurontin-case-is-denied/

Pfizer's "Witness Tampering" Motion in Neurontin Case Is Denied

By Jim Edwards | Oct 14, 2009

A federal judge has ruled against Pfizer’s request for sanctions against a witness in the Neurontin litigation whom it alleged had attempted to wrongly influence another witness in the case. The judge dismissed Pfizer’s allegations with just four words:

This Motion is DENIED.

• Download the ruling here.

The ruling draws to a close a gossipy sideshow that mostly has nothing to do with the meat of the case: Whether Pfizer wrongly promoted Neurontin so that patients who never should have been on the drug ended up with prescriptions for it.

Pfizer had complained that Dr. David Egilman, an expert witness in the case, had sent a truncated copy of a controversial email to another witness in the case, the doctor who treated Hartley Shearer, a Massachusetts man whose family claims he killed himself after taking the drug. (BNET revealed that the email was from former Pfizer vp/neuroscience Atul Pande, telling a colleague that there is “negligible evidence” for the use of Neurontin in bipolar disorder and that the drug is “not a good anti-manic treatment.”)

Pfizer claimed that Egilman had “cherry-picked” the document and that he was attempting to tamper with the witness. In response, the plaintiffs’ lawyers accused Pfizer of “blatant hypocrisy” because in another Neurontin case the company had sent an ex-CIA agent to the house of a witness and terrified his family.

Did Pfizer Intimidate a Key Plaintiffs Witness on the Eve of the Neurontin Trial?

Quoted from http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432898903

Did Pfizer Intimidate a Key Plaintiffs Witness on the Eve of the Neurontin Trial?

Susan Beck
The American Lawyer
August 10, 2009

Did Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, cross the line on the eve of last month's crucial test trial involving its controversial anti-seizure medication Neurontin?

Two weeks after the trial abruptly ended with the plaintiffs agreeing to dismiss their case with prejudice, questions linger about why Pfizer sent a former CIA agent and private investigator to the home of a whisteblowing scientist the day before he was scheduled to testify. The scientist, David Franklin, told the Am Law Litigation Daily that he and his family felt harassed and intimidated by the Pfizer investigator's appearance at their home and are still shaken by the event. The judge overseeing the Neurontin multidistrict litigation, Boston federal district court judge Patti Saris, issued a restraining order instructing Pfizer and the investigator to stay away from Franklin and his family.

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Pfizer Lawsuit Over Neurontin Is Dropped by Family

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aWOruWseqg0g

Pfizer Lawsuit Over Neurontin Is Dropped by Family

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. won’t face a jury verdict over claims that its epilepsy medicine Neurontin helped cause a Massachusetts woman’s suicide after her family dropped their lawsuit in the midst of the trial.

The family of Susan Bulger agreed to dismissal of the suit after an anonymous donor offered to put money in a trust for the woman’s 10-year-old daughter, the family’s lawyer, Mark Lanier, said today. The trial began Monday and was scheduled to run three weeks in federal court in Boston.

“It was the best thing for the family,” said David Egilman, a Brown University medical school professor who serves as the Bulgers’ spokesman.

The family claimed New York-based Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, promoted Neurontin for unapproved uses and didn’t warn that it could increase the risk of suicide until forced to do so by the government. The trial was the first of about 1,200 Neurontin suits.

Pfizer fell 15 cents to $15.88 at 10:26 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading.

The case is Bulger v. Pfizer Inc., 1:07-cv-11426, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston). The suit is part of In Re Neurontin Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1629.

Pfizer Faces First Trial on Claim Neurontin Boosts Suicide Risk

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=adHMfqi6biJU

Pfizer Faces First Trial on Claim Neurontin Boosts Suicide Risk

By Margaret Cronin Fisk, Jef Feeley and Cary O ’Reilly

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, goes to trial next week on claims its epilepsy medication Neurontin increases the risk of suicide, in a case the judge called “very tough” for the plaintiffs to win.

The July 27 trial will be the first of what plaintiffs’ lawyers say are about 1,200 cases. It will show each side the other’s strategy and may help point the way to settlements. The lead attorney for the family of Susan Bulger, 39, who took the drug before hanging herself in 2004, is Mark Lanier, winner of the biggest verdict over Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx.

Pfizer says Bulger’s suicide was unrelated to its medicine and points to what it calls a history of mental disorders and abusing drugs including cocaine. Her past might make it hard for the family to win, said Robert Rabin, a law professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

“If she was taking other drugs, there’s a question if this particular drug contributed to the suicide,” Rabin said in a phone interview.

U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris in Boston made a similar point at a July 20 pretrial hearing. It’s “a very tough case because of her personal history,” she said.

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