$894 Million to Settle Drug Lawsuits

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.