Re: Class action filed today

[Guest guest]

Class action filed today against Pfizer and marketing

of Lipitor. All I can say is AT LAST.

Female and Elder Consumers and Payers Sue Pfizer Over

Deceptive

2005-09-28 11:47 (New York)

Marketing of Lipitor®

Plaintiffs Allege Promotional Scheme to Boost Sales of

World's Best-Selling

Drug by Misleading Women and Seniors About Link

Between the Drug and Heart

Disease

BOSTON, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers today

filed the first-of-its-

kind nationwide class-action lawsuit against Pfizer

(NYSE: PFE), claiming the

world's largest drug company misled consumers into

using its anti-cholesterol

drug Lipitor despite the absence of evidence from

clinical trials that these

drugs are of any benefit to large segments of the

population.

According to Steve Berman, the lead attorney for

the proposed class,

Pfizer promoted Lipitor by claiming it prevents heart

disease in women and the

elderly, where no clinical test has established such a

benefit. In fact,

according to the complaint, women without heart

disease taking Lipitor

actually developed 10 percent more heart attacks than

women treated with a

placebo.

The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer engaged in a

massive campaign to convince

both doctors and patients that Lipitor is a beneficial

treatment for nearly

everyone with elevated cholesterol, even though no

studies have shown it to be

effective for women and those over 65 years of age who

do not already have

heart disease or diabetes.

Normally, drugs become widely used as treatments

for patients only when a

well-designed clinical trial finds that the drug is

safe and effective for

patients of the same type and age. No such trial has

shown that Lipitor helps

the elderly or females without prior heart disease.

" We believe Pfizer

intentionally ignored the scientific evidence -- and

lack thereof -- and

launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign designed

to push the drug to

anyone they could convince to buy it, " Berman said.

" We intend to prove that

Pfizer pocketed billions in sales to those who do not

benefit from Lipitor. "

Lipitor is in the class of cholesterol-lowering

drugs called statins and

it is the best-selling drug in the world, with sales

in 2004 of more than $10

billion.

According to Abramson, MD, clinical

instructor of ambulatory care at

Harvard Medical School and author of Overdosed

America: The Broken Promise of

American Medicine, the scientific picture is clear.

" The idea that lowering cholesterol always reduces

the risk of heart

disease has become the conventional wisdom, which drug

companies like Pfizer

have taken great pains to promote. But for women

under 65 and people over 65

with no history of heart disease or diabetes, the

evidence just isn't there, "

Abramson said. " Millions of women and seniors are

spending huge sums to take

Lipitor every day despite a lack of proof that it's

doing anything beneficial

for them, and may actually be harming the elderly. "

Sugerman-Brozan, director of the Prescription

Access Litigation

Project, added, " We believe that the evidence will

shine light on the ways

that drug companies like Pfizer work to manipulate

most of what we know about

prescription drugs, from the research to the

guidelines that doctors follow. "

One of the organizations suing Pfizer, Health Care For

All, is a member of the

Prescription Access Litigation Project.

The suit claims that Pfizer's promotional campaign

has resulted in

billions of dollars in unnecessary drug spending among

these two groups of

patients at a time when drug and general healthcare

costs are spiraling out of

control.

Yost, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit,

is a 73-year-old woman

with no history of heart disease who has been taking

Lipitor for several

years. " With the high cost of prescription drugs

today, no seniors I know can

afford to pay for a drug that doesn't do what it

promises, " Ms. Yost said.

" I'm disappointed that Pfizer is spending millions to

convince seniors to pay

top dollar for a drug without full disclosure of its

effectiveness. It shows

that the drug industry's priorities are skewed when

they spend twice as much

on marketing as they do on research. "

Health Care For All noted the high economic cost

to taxpayers. " We all pay

the price for the over-prescription of drugs, like

Lipitor, because we have to

foot much of the bill for state pharmacy programs for

seniors and soon for the

Medicare drug benefit, " said , Consumer

Health Policy

Coordinator of Health Care For All. " We can't allow

drug companies to trick

seniors into taking expensive, unnecessary drugs that

will drive up the

already-high costs that Medicare will be paying for

seniors' drugs. "

According to the ASCOT study, the largest clinical

trial of the

effectiveness of statin therapy in women, there is

reason to be concerned.

The study of 2000 women at increased risk of

developing heart disease found

that the women who took Lipitor developed 10% more

heart attacks than the

women who took a placebo.

The proposed class action seeks to represent women

who have taken Lipitor

and who have no history of heart disease or diabetes;

people aged 65 and over

who have taken Lipitor and who have no history of

heart disease or diabetes;

and third-party payers such as insurance companies,

union health and welfare

funds, self-insured employers and others, who paid for

Lipitor for patients in

either of these two groups.

The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer violated state

consumer protection laws

against deceptive advertising and seeks reimbursement

for women and seniors

and third-party payers who bought Lipitor

unnecessarily as a result of

Pfizer's deceptive marketing and promotional campaign.

" We intend to prove in

this case that Pfizer's false advertising created an

enormous artificial

demand for Lipitor, much of which would not exist if

Pfizer had fully and

fairly disclosed the truth about the drug, " said

Berman.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in

Boston, was filed by

Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman Sobol

Shapiro, on behalf of

several individuals, Health Care For All, and the

Teamsters.

For a copy of the complaint or to view the studies

cited in the complaint,

visit www.hbsslaw.com.

About Prescription Access Litigation Project

Prescription Access Litigation Project (PAL)

(www.prescriptionaccess.org)

is a project of Boston-based Community Catalyst. PAL

is a nationwide coalition

of over 110 state, local, and national senior, labor

and consumer health

advocacy groups in 35 states fighting to make

prescription drugs affordable.

Since its launch in 2001, PAL members have filed 23

sets of lawsuits targeting

drug industry practices that illegally push the price

of prescription drugs

beyond the reach of the American consumer.

About Community Catalyst

Community Catalyst (www.communitycatalyst.org) is

a Boston-based national

advocacy organization that builds consumer and

community participation in the

shaping of our health system to ensure quality,

affordable health care for

all.

About Health Care For All

Health Care For All (www.hcfama.org) is a consumer

advocacy organization

building a movement of empowered people and

organizations with the goal of

creating a health care system that is responsive to

the needs of all people,

particularly the most vulnerable. Health Care For All

is dedicated to making

quality health care a right of all people.

About Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is a law firm with

offices in Seattle,

Cambridge, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. The firm has

developed a nationally

recognized practice in class-action litigation. The

firm is co-lead counsel in

litigation to recover losses from Enron employees'

retirement funds and

represented Washington and 12 other states in lawsuits

against the tobacco

industry that resulted in the largest settlement in

the history of litigation.

The firm also served as counsel in several other

high-profile cases including

the Washington Public Power Supply litigation, which

resulted in a settlement

of more than $850 million, and the $92.5 million

settlement of The Boeing

Company litigation. Other notable cases include

litigation involving the Exxon

Valdez oil spill; Louisiana Pacific Siding; on

Knudsen; Piper Jaffray;

Nordstrom; Boston Chicken; Noah's Bagels; TAP

Pharmaceutical's Lupron

litigation; and Kline Beecham's Paxil Litigation.

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