A California state court jury has ordered Pfizer to pay $38 million to a medical research firm for stealing trade secrets to develop the Bextra painkiller, which eventually was taken off the market, The San Jose Mercury News reports.

The six-week trial also found that Pfizer and a former employee of the research firm could be liable for punitive damages, which could triple the judgment and catapult the verdict beyond $100 million. The damage award stems from a lawsuit filed by Dennis Mangano, head of the nonprofit Ischemia Research and Education Foundation, an outfit that has gained national attention in recent years for studies on the risks posed by certain medications during heart bypass surgery, such as Bayer’s Trasylol (read here and here).

Mark Geragos, one of Mangano’s lawyers, called Pfizer’s conduct “despicable” and says the verdict would save the foundation’s research work. Pfizer, meanwhile, vowed to appeal. “The company stands by the belief that its conduct was proper,” Pfizer says in a statement. “Pfizer continues to believe that it was unjustly caught in a crossfire between (the foundation) and one of its former employees.”

The lawyer for the former foundation worker, Ping Hsu, did not return phone calls on the verdict.

Jeffrey Frenster, the jury foreman, said there was a mountain of evidence that showed Pfizer improperly secured a treasure trove of medical research that had taken decades to develop. During three days of deliberations, Frenster said, jurors concluded Pfizer conspired with Hsu to use the data without paying tens of millions of dollars through a contract.

“We felt there was compelling evidence that Pfizer at some level knew exactly what was going on there,” Frenster tells the paper.

The lawsuit alleged Pfizer approached the foundation in 2002 to use its renowned database in clinical trials on Bextra, a Cox-2 inhibitor, a class of drugs that includes Pfizer’s Celebrex and Merck’s Vioxx. Mangano’s data on cardiovascular issues was considered crucial because of concerns the drug might pose heart risks which, in fact, prompted Pfizer to withdraw Bextra.

But according to court documents, Pfizer and the foundation could not agree on terms for use of the database. The lawsuit alleged that Pfizer arranged a side contract with Hsu, a lead statistician who provided the data without approval. The lawsuit further alleged that Pfizer and Hsu destroyed evidence when confronted about stealing the trade secrets, a centerpiece of the trial.