Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro Cases

Lipitor Litigation (Pfizer)

Date Filed: September 28, 2005

Court: U.S. District Court

Location: Boston

Ticker Symbol: PFE

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit on behalf of individual consumers, a number of labor unions and senior advocacy organizations who purchased the drug Lipitorý. The suit claims that the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE), misled consumers about the benefits of Lipitor through deceptive marketing and advertising activities.

Lipitor is in the class of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins and is the best-selling drug in the world. In 2004 Lipitor sales reached more than $10 billion. It is estimated that out of the 2004 sales, billions came from patients who do not benefit from the drug.

According to the complaint, Pfizer launched a massive campaign to convince the public 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. If fact, there is evidence that women who are taking Lipitor without heart disease actually developed 10 percent more heart attacks than women treated with a placebo.

The lawsuit alleges that Pfizer violated state consumer protection laws against deceptive advertising and seeks to represent women under 65 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.

For more information, read the complaint.

For additional information, please visit www.lipitor-classaction.com, a Web site dedicated to raising awareness of this issue.