Susan Bulger’s family agreed to dismiss the suit after an anonymous donor offered to put money in a trust for her 10-year- old daughter, Regina, said Mark Lanier, the family’s lawyer. The trial began July 27 and was scheduled to run three weeks in federal court in Boston.
The suit was the first of about 1,200 involving Neurontin. The family claimed Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, promoted the medication for unapproved uses and didn’t warn it could increase the risk of suicide until forced to do so by the government. Pfizer said Bulger had a history of drug abuse and had made six suicide attempts before taking her life in 2004.
“We are pleased to have been vindicated in this case,” Jeffrey Kindler, chief executive officer of New York-based Pfizer, said in a phone interview on Bloomberg Television today. Neurontin has been “prescribed to treat millions of patients safely and effectively for many, many years and it’s been widely studied for more than two decades,” he said.
The next Neurontin trial is set to start March 29 in Boston federal court, while another case in Tennessee may be tried earlier, Lanier said. The lawsuits claim Pfizer should have warned patients and doctors that Neurontin can increase suicidal thoughts.
Kindler’s comments are “outrageous,” Lanier said. “All Pfizer got today was a six-month stay of execution. We have 1,200 more of these cases to go.”
The anonymous donor was a plaintiffs’ lawyer who wasn’t involved in the case, said Lanier, a friend of the donor’s. “It was the best thing for the family,” said David Egilman, a Brown University medical school professor who serves as the Bulgers’ spokesman.
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