how Pfizer gets away with murder - literally...

October 12, 2004

SSRI-Research@

Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:00:14 -0400

[sSRI-Research] how Pfizer gets away with murder - literally...

[-- it's all about money.... Pfizer, et al, has no regard for human

life or the costs resulting from their drug-induced tragedies - an

amount that cannot be counted... A global holocaust.]

cs-utility

The FDA briefs have helped companies win, particularly suits alleging

harm from antidepressants whose labels failed to warn about alleged

side effects such as increased suicide risk.

Pfizer Inc. won two such cases this year in Texas. Judges agreed with

Troy that Pfizer couldn't be liable for not warning about suicide risk

if it used the FDA-approved warning label for antidepressant Zoloft.

Troy represented Pfizer for at least three years before joining the

FDA -- mainly in communications and insurance law, he's said. His fees

from the company were $415,000, including $359,000 in 2001.

Two weeks after his year-long restriction on action involving former

clients ended, Troy intervened for Pfizer.

Company attorney Malcolm Wheeler said he never knew Troy until calling

him in July 2002, to discuss a lawsuit filed by a widow whose husband

killed himself six days after starting Zoloft.

When Troy signed on, Pfizer shifted its legal strategy to mirror the

FDA's argument that the agency's approval of an ad pre-empts legal

claims. The company had previously defended Zoloft cases by probing a

defendant's history and arguing he was suicidal before taking the drug.

The advantage of the new strategy is that favorable rulings establish

case law that Pfizer -- or any drug company -- can cite in future

lawsuits. Proving that a suicide victim was depressed before taking

antidepressants helps only that case.

Wheeler, who began defending Pfizer in 1997 or 1998, said he hadn't

previously thought of seeking FDA's help or arguing pre-emption.

The FDA stepped in two other cases around the same time it helped Pfizer.

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