Quoted from http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/03/federal_judge_in_alabama_order.html
Federal judge in Alabama orders mediation for Chantix lawsuits not yet settled
By Kent Faulk | [email protected] The Birmingham News
on March 13, 2013 at 8:00 AM
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A federal judge in Alabama, who presides over an estimated 2,700 federal lawsuits filed against Pfizer Inc.'s smoking cessation drug Chantix, has ordered plaintiffs who haven't yet reached settlements in their cases to go into mediation to reach agreements.
The judge has assigned a mediator for the case.
Pfizer on Feb. 28 told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it had reached settlements in about 80 percent of the cases and was assuming a loss of $273 million to settle them. It expects to spend another $15 million to settle the remaining cases.
U.S. District Court Judge Inge Johnson on Tuesday issued an order that states that she has been informed by the lead counsel for the parties that a substantial majority of the cases have been resolved.