Pfizer settles Neurontin wrongful death suit

By: Nora Tooher
Published: May 18, 2010

Tags: Neurontin, off-label uses, Pfizer, wrongful death

A settlement has been reached in the third Neurontin wrongful death case, which was scheduled to begin trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, Tenn.

Terms were not disclosed.

Ruby Smith, 79, a retired minister in Nashville, committed suicide in May 2004, two months after he started taking Neurontin for back and neck surgeries.

His family sued New York-based Pfizer for aggressively marketing off-label uses of its anti-seizure medication, without disclosing to doctors that Neurontin increased the risk of suicide.

In a statement, Pfizer said: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Smith family to resolve this case as it avoids the time and expense of a trial. We have great sympathy for the Smith family and respect their desire for privacy regarding the outcome of the case.”

About 1,200 lawsuits have been filed, in both state and federal courts.

The first wrongful death trial ended bizarrely with a dismissal in U.S. District Court in Boston in July 2009, after an anonymous donor offered to put money in a trust fund for the daughter of a Massachusetts woman who committed suicide after taking Neurontin.

The second trial in Boston ended mid-trial in April when Pfizer reportedly agreed to pay about $400,000 to settle a lawsuit that blamed Neurontin for helping cause a Massachusetts man’s suicide.

In a suit filed by California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Pfizer in March was found guilty by a federal jury in Boston for violating anti-racketeering laws by promoting Neurontin for unapproved uses. The drug maker faces at least $142 million in damages as a result of the verdict.

-Nora Lockwood Tooher

Comments

Karen Budrow says:

Sorry to hear the misuse of neurotin has caused such damage. My father, now deceased at 87, used neurotin for years to settle his “stomach” pains which we had felt were stress related. He would go without many suggested medications in his life as he was of that nature. He disdained the use of medications. For some reason that the family marvelled at, he swore that neurotin maintained his digestion in better form and without discomfort and he would seldom go a day without it, for years.

Posted on 05/19/10 at 10:27 am

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