Posts Tagged ‘ Wyeth ’

Week Adjourned: 5.29.10

May 29th, 2010. By LucyC

Kiss the week goodbye…Memorial Day Weekend here we come!

Top Class Actions

Demented Segmented Marketing. A couple of former employees who blew the whistle on Wyeth in 2005 by filing a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company refiled an amended complaint this week, alleging that the company illegally promoted its kidney transplant drug Rapamune for use with other organ transplants—the Swiss Army knife of meds!— for which the drug is not indicated. You know—heart, lung, liver, pancreas—essential organs—that kind of thing…

And , yes—there’s more, the complaint claims Wyeth targeted African American patients, who are a high-risk patient group, despite the lack of evidence to support its use in this population. Sadly, this all sounds par for the course by now. Oh—by the way—Wyeth is now owned by Pfizer, and Pfizer, if you recall, settled a whistleblower lawsuit in September 2009—paying $102 million to six whistleblowers who brought a suit over its marketing and promotion of the prescription arthritis medication Bextra, and ordered to pay $2.3 billion in civil and criminal penalties. Pfizer also agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge for promoting Bextra and 12 other drugs for unapproved uses and dosages.

Anyway—back to Rapamune. The two whistleblowers who filed the suit are ex-Wyeth sales reps— their turf was hospitals—so they are in position to know. The list of allegations on the complaint is pretty lengthy and makes for some shocking reading. But it boils down to illegal promotion and kickbacks in exchange for prescriptions written. Thing is, this could affect numerous transplant recipients across the country:

”Despite limited data on high-risk patients, Wyeth targeted transplant centers that catered primarily to African-American patients, typically in urban areas. In 2005, Wyeth’s sales management selected Philadelphia’s Einstein Medical Center as a center on which to focus a Wyeth marketing plan designed to rapidly increase or accelerate Rapamune sales in a 90 day period. Einstein’s transplant patient population was approximately 75 percent African-American in 2005,” the suit states.

Nice to know these folks had the patients’ best interests at heart…no pun intended.

Top Settlements

New Wal-mart Recycling Program: Lawsuits? It’s business as usual for Wal-Mart—one of our profoundly regular, if not ignorant contributors—has settled yet another employment class action this Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Pfizer, Polo Ralph Lauren, Rapamune, Wal-Mart, Wyeth
Posted in Week Adjourned | 3781No Comments »Week+Adjourned%3A+5.29.102010-05-29+16%3A36%3A49LucyC

7 Game-Changing Settlements of 2009

December 15th, 2009. By Kristine B

We’re in the countdown to year-end and looking over some of the more impactful settlements LawyersAndSettlements.com has covered over the past year. When we’re talking impactful, everyone around here has an opinion—so we had to throw in some criteria. To get the nod for impact, a settlement had to be one of two things: 1. High dollar value; or 2. Precedent-setting—or at least have the potential to influence similar cases to follow. (Sounds si chess pieces 7 Game Changing Settlements of 2009 mple, but you try getting Stephen, John, Jaime, Michelle and Ben to settle in on just 7 settlements with just those criteria…) So here we go…7 game-changing settlements for ’09…

1) Family takes on GlaxoSmithKline

Michelle David filed a lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline, alleging the company’s antidepressant, Paxil was responsible for her son’s birth defects. David said she had taken Paxil while pregnant and was not aware of the potential side effects. GlaxoSmithKline said that birth defects occur in between three and five percent of all live births, regardless of Paxil use.

A jury found, in a 10-2 decision, that GlaxoSmithKline’s officials were negligent in failing to warn David’s doctor about the risks of Paxil. The jury also found that Paxil was a factual cause of the little boy’s heart problems. David was awarded $2.5 million.

Why it’s impactful:There are 600 or so lawsuits alleging Paxil caused birth defects waiting in Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Philip Morris, Wal-Mart, Wyeth
Posted in Settlement | 2165No Comments »7+Game-Changing+Settlements+of+20092009-12-15+17%3A43%3A42Kristine+B