For Prempro, Wyeth Likes Hardball Hotel
2 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 19th, 2007 // 8:44 am
A funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse last week in New Brunswick, NJ. A large number of Wyeth lawyers and their opponents, who were representing a woman suing the drugmaker over its hormone replacement therapy, were staying in the same hotel. But then the lawyers for the plaintiff, Ellen Deutsch, were suddenly asked to leave their handful of rooms.
The management at The Heldrich Hotel may have felt a little pressure from Wyeth, which allegedly offered an ‘us or them’ ultimatum. Perhaps, having occupied nearly 40 rooms, where a typical overnight stay costs anywhere from $200 to $430 before group discounts, the drugmaker felt it had some leverage.
“We were told they (Wyeth) wanted us out. The hotel people were in the middle. It was very awkward for them,” says Esther Berezofsky, who negotiated a settlement for Deutsch just as the trial was to begin this week. “I’ve been practicing 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
For its part, the hotel sent us this diplomatically worded statement: “Due to the sensitivity of their professional relationship, The Heldrich team inquired whether one of them would consider alternative accommodations that The Heldrich staff would help facilitate. All parties, however, chose to remain at the hotel and did so amicably.”
And Wyeth’s explanation: “The hotel booking for these trials is done by a travel logistics firm. Without our knowledge, this firm took it upon themselves to ask the hotel to move the plaintiff’s team when they found out they were staying at the same hotel as our lawyers. Wyeth did NOT know they were doing this, nor did we authorize it. When our lawyers found out, they immediately put a stop to it and apologized to the plaintiff’s lawyers. This was a case of an overzealous vendor - nothing more.”
A Wyeth spokesman didn’t provide any info about the ‘travel logistics firm,’ how it suddenly learned that both teams of lawyers were staying at the same hotel, why such a move was made on the eve of the trial, or what, if any action was taken by the drugmaker against this mysterious firm.
John Mack
Nothing more than an “overzealous vendor” indeed! How often have I heard that!
If you think this is scary, then you should look carefully at drug product web sites where personal information of consumers are often collected by “vendors.” Imagine the harm “overzealous” vendors could cause with that information!
tom
John,
Who is really dumb enough to give a lot of information on really any internet site? If I am visiting a product site, I am guessing the people running it would like me to be on the product. I realize that going in. I consider the Pampers site or the Lyrica site to ultimately have the same goal - I realize that, take their information for what it’s worth and move on with my life.
I would consider blogging on Pamper’s, but probably will not.