>Celebrex Litigation (Pfizer)
Date Filed: January 25, 2005
Court: USDC Northern District of California
Location: California
Ticker Symbol: PFE

Hagens Berman has filed a lawsuit on behalf of consumers who purchased the drug Celebrex. The suit claims that the drug's distributor, Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), launched an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign to promote Celebrex, while failing to warn consumers that the drug poses risks of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems.

According to the complaint, Celebrex ads overstate its safety by saying that it provides effective pain relief without the side effects inherent to similar drugs. The misleading ads drove the demand and price of Celebrex beyond what it would have been, had Pfizer truthfully disclosed the drug's risks, the suit states.

Pfizer's misrepresentation of Celebrex is apparent in the process it used to gain approval by the FDA, the complaint alleges. The suit claims that despite Pfizer's prior knowledge that Celebrex posed serious heart risks, it chose to downplay these risks and push the drug on claims that it improves gastrointestinal safety. To support these claims, in 1998 Pfizer funded a clinical CLASS trial to show that Celebrex has greater gastrointestinal safety than traditional pain relievers such as aspirin and ibuprofen. The suit also contends that in Pfizer's plan to gain swift FDA approval, it did not conduct any significant tests on cardiovascular safety, or publish any data on cardiovascular events from the CLASS trial. Therefore, having only reviewed the results of the gastrointestinal safety tests, the FDA approved Celebrex for the relief of osteoarthritis in December 1998, the suit states.

Once it gained approval, Pfizer's advertising campaign proved very profitable, the suit claims. Though the company spent more than $400 million on direct-to-consumer advertising for Celebrex, sales have yielded billions of dollars, including $2.3 billion for the first three quarters of 2004, the lawsuit states.

The complaint alleges that Pfizer's actions violate Arizona's Consumer Fraud Act, through its unfair and unlawful practices, and that the company is benefiting from Unjust Enrichment at the detriment of the proposed class. The proposed class includes all individuals in Arizona who purchased Celebrex during the past four years.

For more information, read the complaint.