| Chicago Firm Files Class Action Suit Against Pfizer Over Bextra
Monday, April 11, 2005
By Steve Miller
WBBM Newsradio 780's
- CHICAGO -- The first of the lawsuits has been filed now against Pfizer - the maker of the painkiller Bextra - which was taken off the market last Thursday after reports linked it to heart attacks, strokes, and a skin condition…
Four days after Pfizer stopped selling the painkiller Bextra in the U.S. and Europe - a Chicago law firm has now filed a class action lawsuit against Pfizer for leaving Bextra on the market so long in the first place.
Newsradio 780 was waiting on a response from Pfizer.
Chicago attorney Kenneth Moll - who's representing clients in Illinois and in other states - has filed suit against Pfizer - on behalf of people who have died or were injured after taking Bextra.
"Let me put it to you this way. Never in the history of our firm have we been involved in litigation where doctors have been approaching us for years saying this is a bad drug."
Moll says the lawsuit demands compensation.
Moll says his firm filed the first class action suit against Merck - the maker of Vioxx - after it was taken off the market last fall.
A woman from northwest suburban Island Lake is one of the plaintiffs in this first class action suit against Pfizer.
Attorney Sarah Bullard says the woman in her late 40s took Bextra for about six months.
"And in that time frame, she suffered a heart attack. And also, she wasn't even aware that this skin problem she suffered could be from taking Bextra. She had had a horrible rash on her hands; the skin on her hands turned raw and kind of flaked off."
The lawsuit demands compensation from Pfizer - and a fund to help people who say they were injured by Bextra.
Bextra is a cox-2 inhibitor. Celebrex - also made by Pfizer - is the last cox-2 inhibitor on the market.
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