Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog
Pfizer Inc. resolved all but three of 35,000 claims over its withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin for a total of about $750 million.
Pfizer, which is acquiring rival Wyeth for almost $64 billion, paid about $500 million to settle Rezulin cases consolidated in federal court in New York, according to court filings. The company also paid as much as $250 million to resolve state-court suits.
Rezulin, a drug taken by about 1.9 million diabetics to help regulate insulin levels, was pulled from the U.S. market in 2000 after it was linked to at least 63 deaths from liver failure. Pfizer officials said in 2004 the company faced about 35,000 personal-injury claims over the drug.
Another 20,000 claims filed in state courts around the country were resolved through dismissals, jury verdicts or settlements for a total of about $250 million.
Pfizer persuaded juries in Texas and Maryland to reject three women’s claims that Rezulin damaged their livers. Those rulings came over a three-year period starting in 2001.
Still, the company faced early losses in Rezulin cases. In 2001, a Texas jury ordered Pfizer to pay $43 million to a 63- year-old diabetic who suffered liver damage while taking the drug. The company later agreed to pay $30 million to settle the case, according to people familiar with the settlement at the time.
In 2002, an Oklahoma jury ordered the drugmaker to pay the family of a man who died after taking Rezulin a total of $11.6 million in damages. That award later was upheld on appeal, according to court records.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Personal Injury Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.