Personal Injury Law

Judge rules Pfizer will not face class-action suits over off-label marketing of Neurontin.

By Wayne Parsons

Bloomberg News (5/16, Fisk) reported, "Pfizer Inc. the world's largest drugmaker, won't face class-action lawsuits by health-insurance companies and patients on claims it improperly marketed the epilepsy drug Neurontin for unapproved uses, a judge ruled." US District Judge Patti Saris found that "consumer plaintiffs, seeking separate classes for treatment of individual illnesses, failed to support claims connecting off-label marketing to doctors' actions in prescribing the drug." She stated that "the plaintiffs would have to demonstrate doctor-by-doctor that defendants' fraudulent misrepresentations or omissions during the off-label promotion caused the doctor to prescribe the medication." The company was "accused of promotion the drug for uses not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, in violation of FDA rules, increasing Neurontin sales." Consumers were split "into sub-classes, depending on the use prescribed."

Full post as published by Honolulu Personal Injury Lawyer on May 18, 2009 (boomark / email).