Pfizer Strikes Deal Over Celebrex & Bextra Lawsuits
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // May 2nd, 2008 // 3:01 pm
The drugmaker reached tentative settlements with some groups of plaintiffs who allege the painkillers caused heart attacks and strokes, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers at three firms involved in the litigation.
The firms represent more than 200 of the thousands who sued Pfizer over the two meds, but the drugmaker is still holding talks with other law firms, the paper writes. Unlike Merck’s recent settlement of most Vioxx lawsuits in the US, Pfizer is trying to resolve its liability on a firm-by-firm basis, the lawyers tell the Journal.
A Pfizer spokesman call us to say there is no comment. And Michael Rozen, an attorney with the Feinberg Group who is negotiating the deals on behalf of Pfizer, didn’t respond to the paper’s request for comment.
A lawyer at one law firm told the Journal he had been offered about $200,000 per client, on average, to settle his Bextra cases and an average of $40,000 to $50,000 per client to resolve Celebrex suits. Bextra, you may recall, was withdrawn from the market three years ago. Pfizer is willing to pay as much $500 million overall to resolve the litigation, the paper writes, citing unnamed attorneys.
The first Bextra trial was due to go begin Monday in federal court in San Francisco. Beverly Haslam, the plaintiff in that case, claims her husband died from a heart attack that resulted from taking Bextra. But earlier this week, the parties agreed to adjourn the case so Pfizer could attempt to settle Celebrex and Bextra cases across the country, according to a lawyer involved in the Haslam case.
Paul
Glad to see they are paying a price. Pfizer was the company that started the collapse of Cox-2 inhibitors, in the end denying good pain killers for many of us.
They made such a stink about Vioxx having heart side effects, but Celebrex and bextra being clean. The lied all over the place casting doubt on the whole class thinking that they were just attacking vioxx. Now they are paying the price for stupidity and bad ethics.
ANNONYMOUS
GUESS WHAT! I am the family of the bellwether case quoted above. WE DID NOT AGREE TO AJOURN and we HAVE NOT been approached on a settlement!
Pfizer is not a paying a price. They are playing a game!
Lothar
You are right, anonymous. Pfizer is mocking all victims of the drugs they make and are playing a game with them. For Pfizer, all is just an economical question and not about ethics! They have no respect of the law or the life of other people.
I am German and my wife killed herself three years ago after she took the antidepressant Zoloft for two weeks.
Never before has she been suicidal but the drug changed her mood. At the time she took the drug the package insert contained no warning about the risk of suicide and that Zoloft can make some people suicidal and that the patients should be observed closely, especially at the beginning of taking the drug and when changing the dosage.
Pfizer doesn’t admit any fault! They try to put the blame on my wife’s illness, but she was never suicidal. She loved life and had so many plans and ideas about our future!
Now Pfizer has changed the label of ZOLOFT. After all they couldn’t ignore the facts and feared more legal damage and costs if they didn’t change the label.
I tried to sue Pfizer for manslaughter and concealing the risk of suicide. But the German courts dismissed my case despite all the evidence. Pfizer is playing a game on me and the german public. But I won’t stop. I have created two blogs, one in English http://contra-pfizer.blogspot.com and one in German at http://gegen-pfizer.blogspot.com to tell my story.
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[...] Pfizer makes a deal on some Bextra/Celebrex lawsuits - The drugmaker reached tentative settlements with some groups of plaintiffs who allege the painkillers caused heart attacks and strokes, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers at three firms involved in the litigation…more [...]
felicita
i am still waiting for this to be resolve a few years i had to strokes taking bextra and celbrex and heart attack what are they waiting for they know those drugs harmed many people, 4years is a long time . just do the right thing for all the pain and sufferig we endured and pay for what u did
Daniel
I was given celebrex by a doctor in 400 mg doses which killed most of my heart tissue and completely destroying my life and ability to earn a decent living for my wife and myself. Pfizer has dragged their feet til im to the point of having to depend on charity organization to even eat. Pfizer knew the drug was dangerous even before they put it on the market and lied about the results of their testing to the FDA. They are refusing to offer enough monies to me so i can pay my rent every month, or eat, or get health care which i need now due to my heart problem. People need to get up in arms because apparently even the courts are allowing Pfizer to do what they are doing, dragging their feet on this.