News & Press

New Round of Personal Injury Lawsuits filed Against Pfizer over Undisclosed Risks of Blockbuster Cholesterol Drug Lipitor

NEW YORK — A new series of personal injury lawsuits has been filed against Pfizer Inc, charging the giant drug company with concealing serious and permanent health risks associated with the blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor. Two similar personal injury lawsuits were filed against the company in early June.

The new suits — 17 in all — accuse Pfizer of deceptive marketing practices and allege that the company promoted Lipitor as a safe drug with minimal health risks while failing to adequately warn physicians and patients of Lipitor’s more dangerous side effects, including nerve damage, memory loss and other cognitive impairments. The lawsuits contend that Lipitor is defectively designed and lacks adequate patient warnings as to its potential cognitive and neuromuscular dangers.

The lawsuits, all filed in New York State Supreme Court on July 14, were brought on behalf of plaintiffs from California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. More filings are expected in coming weeks.
Among the new plaintiffs is a professional airline pilot from Virginia, who claims that permanent muscle and nerve damage he suffered from Lipitor have made it impossible for him to continue flying — ironically, he began taking the drug to maintain satisfactory cholesterol levels to pass his employment physical. Other plaintiffs include a former professional soccer player, a college professor from Amherst, New York, and a practicing dentist from Long Island, NY.

Also filing suit is Lydia A. Fish, the 74-year-old widow of the late U.S. Congressman from New York Hamilton Fish. Mrs. Fish, a resident of Port Jervis, NY, is a former political activist who once ran for public office. However, since starting Lipitor in 1999, she has suffered a series of irreversible health problems that she and her family assert were caused by Pfizer’s drug Lipitor. Among the damages she alleges were triggered by Lipitor are peripheral nervous system damage (peripheral neuropathy), short- term memory loss and depression. After discontinuing the medication last month, she continues to be plagued by constant forgetfulness, loss of balance, altered sensations in her hands and feet, confusion, and bouts of fatigue and loss of energy. Her physicians diagnosed her with cerebral atrophy, with no evidence to suggest Alzheimer type dementia.

“I’m 100 percent confident that Lipitor has caused my mother’s significant memory loss and has totally debilitated her,” said Jennifer Beykirch, Mrs. Fish’s eldest daughter, who has witnessed her mother’s steady decline for the past several years. “Before taking the drug she was vibrant and always active, but she doesn’t have a life anymore. Sadly, it took us a long time to connect the dots, during which time she has taken numerous other medications to try and correct her dysfunction. But we have no doubt as to the source of her decline: Lipitor has ruined her life.”

Another plaintiff is Dennis Hickie, 52, vice president of a publicly- traded company and a former professional soccer player in the U.K., who took Lipitor to control his high cholesterol. A resident of Long Island, NY, Mr. Hickie claims that, “the neuropathy and myopathy caused by the lengthy exposure to Lipitor has created such damage in my hands, elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles that exercise is excruciatingly painful and impossible to carry out… In reality, I have little strength for anything above opening an envelope… As an ex-professional athlete, there is nothing more soul destroying than NOT being able to enjoy all the benefits of being in peak physical and mental condition.”

The aggressive marketing of Lipitor, Pfizer’s single most successful prescription drug, has helped secure its status as the best-selling drug in the world, with sales exceeding $12 billion in 2005. In recent weeks, most likely in response to the first two lawsuits filed, Pfizer has taken out full- page ads in The Wall Street Journal and other national publications touting Lipitor as a safe way to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

“No one is challenging Lipitor’s effectiveness in lowering cholesterol levels, nor do we contend that the drug is unsafe for all patients,” said attorney Mark Jay Krum, who represents Mrs. Fish, along with the other 18 plaintiffs.

“Rather, these lawsuits charge that Pfizer failed to adequately warn both doctors and consumers of the drug’s more serious and sometimes permanent health risks — risks that Pfizer was well aware of in its own clinical studies of statin usage,” Mr. Krum added. “Pfizer has apparently engaged in a campaign of misinformation, designed to downplay and cover up Lipitor’s more serious and irreversible side effects, and is willing to promote the drug at any cost.”

Lipitor, a statin first approved by the Food & Drug Administration in 1996, may reduce cholesterol levels by blocking the body’s production of an enzyme needed to produce cholesterol. By reducing low-density lipoprotein (“LDL”) levels, statins are promoted for their ability to delay the onset of coronary heart disease. However, in addition to their intended effects in lowering LDL levels, statins such as Lipitor are known to adversely affect vital metabolic functions sharing the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway.

The complaints allege that despite receiving two letters since 2001 from the FDA expressing concerns that Lipitor’s marketing materials did not reflect the health risks the drug poses, Pfizer promoted the drug as virtually symptom free, stating on its Web site: “In fact, in some clinical studies, Lipitor has been proven to be as safe as taking a sugar pill.”

Mr. Krum filed the first two personal injury suits against Pfizer on June 7, 2006. At a news conference in New York, the original two plaintiffs were joined by individuals from around the U.S. who described experiencing similar serious health problems, which they attribute to Lipitor use, as well as by several physicians who warned of the serious, adverse side effects of statin drugs.

In March, Pfizer was sued by a group of union and employee insurance plans who charged the company with fraudulently marketing Lipitor for off-label uses not approved by FDA protocols for cholesterol treatment, which has resulted in billions of dollars in unnecessary prescriptions for the drug.

Please let us know if you’d like a copy of the new complaints or would like to speak with Mr. Krum. Several of the plaintiffs may be available to talk about their own adverse experiences with Lipitor.

Contact: Robin Brassner, 212-262-7472 [email protected]
Allan Ripp, 212-262-7477 [email protected]
Sara Wolosky, 212-262-7470 [email protected]
Source: Attorney Mark Krum
Web site: http://www.krumlaw.com/