Pfizer Agrees to $325 Million Settlement for Fraudulant Marketing of Neurontin

Pfizer Inc. and Warner-Lambert Co. LLC have agreed to pay $325 million in settlement of a lawsuit brought by a class of third-party payers. It was alleged that the drug Neurontin had been fraudulently marketed by Pfizer and Warner-Lambert. All of the claims brought by class members arising out of the sale and marketing of Neurontin will be resolved. The Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary approval of the settlement came just more than a month after Pfizer agreed to settle the remaining claims for attorneys’ fees in Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.’s suit against the drug manufacturer in the multidistrict litigation (MDL).
The class Plaintiffs, which include Harden Manufacturing Corp., Louisiana Blue Cross/Blue Shield and others, were ready to bring the litigation to an end. The members of the class Plaintiffs’ steering committee (PSC) wrote in a memorandum in support of the settlement:
This settlement, which provides significant and long-awaited benefits to class members, exceeds the standard for preliminary approval of a class action settlement.
The settlement came less than a month after Pfizer agreed to settle another suit in the MDL. Pfizer agreed in that settlement to pay Kaiser, a health maintenance organization, an undisclosed amount of attorneys’ fees. Since 2004, payers of Neurontin have accused the Defendants in several suits of fraudulently marketing the drug and causing them economic harm. Those suits were ultimately centralized before the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts for MDL proceedings.
In the newly settled suit, class Plaintiffs alleged a fraudulent scheme to market and sell Neurontin for a variety of uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The defendants sought to market the drug for several off-label uses in a variety of ways, including through false or misleading statements to physicians, according to the suit. The third-party payers involved in the action include insurance companies, health care benefit providers, union health and welfare plans and others. The class Plaintiffs have sought preliminary approval of the settlement and certification of the class for settlement purposes. They have asked for date for a final approval hearing.

$190 Million John Hopkins Settlement For Pelvic Exam Lawsuits



Johns Hopkins Hospital has agreed to pay $190 million to settle a class action filed by about 3800 women who were secretly videotaped during gynecological examinations by a doctor, Nikita Levy, who was a staff member at the hospital. The preliminary settlement, approved by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Sylverster Cox is believed to be the largest settlement of this sort.

Nikita Levy killed himself in Feb. 2013, two weeks after an employee of the hospital told higher-ups at Johns Hopkins about a penlike device Dr. Levy wore around his neck during patient examinations that she believed to be a camera. While Johns Hopkins did not admit to wrongdoing, it did say in a statement it believes the settlement is “fair and properly balances the concerns of thousands of Plaintiffs with the obligations the health system has to provide ongoing and superior care to the community.”

After receiving the insider tip, Johns Hopkins Hospital security searched Dr. Levy’s office and uncovered several of the penlike devices. Baltimore County police also stormed his home with search warrants and uncovered multiple data storage servers suspected of housing explicit depictions of his patients. The class action suit filed last fall alleged that the institution failed to “discover, stop and report” Dr. Levy because its staff was not trained to recognize and report perverse conduct and patients were not offered the option of having a chaperone present during examinations and procedures. It was also alleged that the institution failed to investigate properly reports of misconduct.



$62.5 million settlement approved in Wells Fargo securities lending case



 



 

 

 

 

 

Final approval was given Monday to a $62.5 million settlement between Wells Fargo and clients who lost money in a complicated investment program known as securities lending. As part of the settlement, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank awarded attorneys representing those clients nearly $23 million in fees and expenses. 

 

The agreement is the third of five lawsuits to be resolved involving Wells Fargo and its investment program. In 2012, a jury in Ramsey County awarded $57 million to several charitable organizations. Last year, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. prevailed in a jury trial in federal court.

Plaintiffs in the cases, including the one that settled Monday, claimed that Wells Fargo lost money for its clients by allegedly investing in complicated and risky ventures with collateral from securities owned by the clients that were loaned to brokers. 

 

The settlement approved Monday was a class-action lawsuit involving 92 members. The lead clients were a public employee pension fund for the city of Farmington Hills, Mich., and the pension fund for a carpenters’ union in Arizona.