• 08
  • January
    2011

2011 is not starting off well for United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Inc. A day after reporting that the drug manufacturer had paid a San Juan pharmacist $1.5 Million to settle her lawsuit against the drug company over the menopause drug Prempro which helped cause her breast cancer, Pfizer is now embattled in thousands of lawsuits over its stop-smoking drug Chantix.

It was revealed today that a federal district judge in Birmingham, Alabama is responsible for overseeing and centralizing approximately 1,200 civil lawsuits involving Pfizer's Chantix stop-smoking drug. In late 2009, The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation originally assigned hundreds of Chantix cases filed around the country to U.S. District Judge Inge Johnson, saying she had the time and experience to handle them. Most of these lawsuits stem from smokers and their families, who allege that the Pfizer medication left them with numerous psychological problems such as memory loss, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, wild mood swings, and aggressiveness. In fact, upwards of 50 percent of the lawsuits filed allege suicide, attempted suicide or other overt acts of injury were caused by the drug.

For its part, Pfizer continues to maintain that Chantix does not cause any of the neuropsychiatric effects that are alleged in the on-going lawsuits. Rather, they contend that Chantix remains an effective treatment for millions of Americans who wish to end their addiction to nicotine and ultimately quit smoking.

If you or someone you know has experienced similar side effects after taking Chantix, please call the law firm of Freidin Dobrinsky for a free consultation.