On Monday, a jury in Illinois State Court in Chicago determined that Janice DiCosolo, 38, died in February 2004 because the patch she was wearing delivered a fatal dose of the narcotic fentanyl.   The Duragesic patch is made by Alza Corporation which is owned by Johnson & Johnson; the patch is distributed by Janssen Pharmaceutica, another Johnson & Johnson company.   The jury awarded her family 16.6 million dollars.

“We disagree with the jury’s verdict,” said Greg Panico, a spokesman for the Johnson & Johnson units, in an e-mailed statement. “We are considering our options for an appeal.”

Defense lawyers cited an autopsy report that indicated DiCosolo died from the interaction of at least 5 drugs including fentanyl that were found in her system.

At trial plaintiff’s lawyers said that Fentanyl is a drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine and is contained in a patch that is intended to be worn for 72 hours, then discarded.  Jim Orr, a plaintiff’s attorney, said that each patch contained enough fentanyl to kill 10 men, each weighing 150 pounds.

Janssen recalled one lot of Duragesic patches in February 2004, a day after DiCosolo died, because of improper sealing of the adhesive backing of the devices, defense lawyer David Sudzus wrote in a court filing. The patch worn by DiCosolo was from that lot, he said.

The patches generated $1.16 billion  dollars in sales for Johnson & Johnson last year but the company has still lost each case that has gone to a jury.

In July 2006, a state court jury in Houston ordered Janssen and Alza to pay $772,500 to the family of a Texas woman who died after her patch leaked.  Johnson & Johnson in July 2007 agreed to pay the family of a Florida man $2.5 million to resolve claims that Adam Hendelson, 28, had died after using one of the patches.  A jury in Sanford, Florida, awarded more than $13 million to the family of Susan Hodgemire, a 34-year-old mother of five who died after using a Duragesic patch in 2002.

On January 12th Johnson & Johnson will be facing another pain patch trial in federal court in Chicago.

Drug giant, Pfizer, has reached an agreement that will ultimately settle most of the lawsuits filed against the company over the side effects of two of it’s drugs, Celebrex and Bextra. It expects that the $894 million dollar agreement will settle more than 90 percent of the claims filed because the drugs are alleged to have caused major side effects to the plaintiffs - heart attacks and strokes.

Pfizer hopes that this will be accomplished by year’s end and also hopes that remaining claimants will be included in the settlement.

General Counsel Amy Schulman told The Associated Press that Pfizer will fight any remaining personal injury suits with court motions or at trial. “I don’t think either side has an interest in protracting this,” Schulman said in an interview.

Out of the total settlement, $745 million will go to settle personal injury cases, $60 million will cover settlements with attorneys general in the 33 states and the District of Columbia, and $89 million will cover consumer fraud class action cases over reimbursement for money spent on the two drugs. Two additional states, Louisiana and Mississippi, still have pending cases regarding Pfizer’s promotion of the drugs.

Schulman has indicated that Pfizer had been negotiating with opposing lawyers for some time. “Litigation can be distracting, and putting these matters behind us helps our shareholders and, most importantly, patients and doctors,” Schulman said.

Pfizer had removed Bextra from the market in 2005 after Merck & Company had removed it’s painkiller, Vioxx, from the market. Merck has begun paying a 4.8 billion dollar settlement that ends about 50,000 lawsuits that claimed Vioxx caused heart attacks, strokes and death.

Celebrex is currently the only Cox-2 inhibitor that the Food and Drug Administration has allowed to stay on the market. These drugs - Bextra, Celebrex and Vioxx - were superior to the usual nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(NSAIDs) like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen because they inhibited only the body enzymes that produced the inflamation(Cox-2). The NSAID drugs also inhibited the Cox-2 enzyme but, in addition, inhibited the Cox-1 enzyme which is important in keeping the mucous lining of the stomach intact. Without the mucous lining, stomach ulcers and bleeding could occur.

Last week a federal judge in Brooklyn decided to unseal confidential documents produced by Eli Lilly about it’s anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa.  The judge, Jack Weinstein,  cited as reasons the health of thousands of people and fundamental issues about how drugs are approved for use.

The documents were produced by Lilly after patients sued because the drug had caused diabetes and extreme overweight.  Shortly after the suit was filed the documents were placed under a protective court order.

“Lilly’s legitimate interest in confidentiality does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure at this stage,” Judge Weinstein wrote.

The issue of confidential information arose in 2006, when New York Times reporter, Alex Berenson, wrote front page articles based on the contents of some of those papers.  He wrote that Lilly knew that Zyprexa had links to obesity and high blood sugar but kept that information from doctors.

Eli Lilly denied that they withheld such information and contended that the information that Berenson used was very carefully selected to give a one-sided view. 

U.S. District Judge Elden Fallon, the federal judge overseeing much of the massive Vioxx litigation, on Wednesday capped plaintiffs’ attorney fees at 32 percent. In doing so he stated that he wanted to ensure that attorney fees were reasonable. He also indicated that attorneys could recover reasonable costs.

The judge gave several reasons for the limit, noting the global settlement reached last November streamlined the work of the participating attorneys. He wrote that he had an increased responsibility to keep fees reasonable because most of the claimants are elderly and frail after having “suffered life-threatening injuries” — or they are survivors of people who died of a heart attack or stroke — so they may not have been able to negotiate the most favorable contracts with attorneys.

Merck & Co., the maker of Vioxx, pulled the painkiller from the market in September 2004 after its own research showed it doubled risk of heart attack and stroke. According to an AP article, there are 871 law firms involved in the litigation which started about the same time as Merck pulled the drug off the market.

Claimants who are part of the Settlement agreement will initially receive 40 percent of their final settlement amount. That will initially go into an escrow account until attorney fees and any medical liens such as Medicare have been deducted. Initial payouts will only be for those who suffered heart attacks. Claimants who suffered strokes will begin to see payments starting in February.

More than 44,000 of 47,000 eligible claimants have enrolled in the Program according to the Official Vioxx Settlement website. This is more than 93 percent. As part of the agreement Merck had insisted that at least 85 per cent of those eligible had to be registered.

Yes, they are.

As recently as February 2008 a number of manufacturers recalled pain patches for what is called a fold over defect.

the 14 lots of Fentanyl transdermal system patches being recalled may have a fold-over defect which may cause the patch to leak and expose patients or caregivers directly to the fentanyl gel. Exposure to fentanyl directly can cause serious harm, including breathing problems and overdose, which can be fatal.

For more information see our Fentanyl Poisoning Lawyer page.