The Verdict: Kaiser v. Pfizer, Inc. - a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organzation?

A few weeks ago I attended my first Town Meeting - in Friendship, Maine.  Rather than the contemplative Quaker Meeting atmosphere the Town's name suggests, it had the tension of the Obama Health Care Summit, as neighbors raised their hands to vote Yea or Nay on on whether to give the Harbor Master a raise.


Juries are like that.  After face to face deliberation, under oath, verdicts are announced in open court, with boxes checked, and figures written by hand (not by mouse-clicks), over the foreman's signature, with each juror standing to affirm Yes, this is my verdict.


In this case on March 25 it was a $47 million verdict in favor of Kaiser Foundation - one of the nation's premier health care delivery organizations - and against the  Pfizer, Inc., which calls itself "the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company".   The drug company is, the jury declared, a corrupt organization.  Under RICO the verdict is subject to trebling. That is the judgment of the community.  That is what we mean when we say, like Justice Scalia, that the jury is the "spinal column" of democracy.  [Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. 1, 30 (1999)]  Read the full verdict HERE



Off-Label, Ineffective
According to plaintiffs co-counsel Lieff Cabraser:

At the trial, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (collectively Kaiser) presented evidence that Pfizer knowingly marketed Neurontin for unapproved uses without proof that it was effective. Kaiser said it was misled into believing migraines and bipolar disorder were among the conditions that could be treated effectively with Neurontin, which was approved by the FDA to treat epilepsy.

Kaiser filed suit  under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act), according to a report in From the Jury:
"A Boston federal jury ordered Pfizer to pay Kaiser Foundation $47 million for false marketing of its drug neurontin.  Under RICO the verdict is trebled to $142 million.
Kaiser sued Pfizer in the District of Massachusetts, where the Neurontin multidistrict ligation is centralized, alleging that off-label marketing of Neurontin caused it to pay for a drug that was not approved for or effective in treating certain conditions.
Plaintiff experts included former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and David Franklin. Franklin was a former physician liaison for Warner-Lambert, the original Neurontin manufacturer, who filed a False Claims Act case against the company, resulting in a 2004 guilty plea and a $430 million settlement that, in turn, sparked the MDL litigation."

The trial began Feb. 22, and the jury began deliberating March 24. Judge Patti B. Saris presided.
In Re: Neurontin Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1629, No. 04-10981; Guardian Life Insurance Company of America v. Pfizer, Inc., et al., Aetna, Inc., v. Pfizer, Inc., No. 04-10739, D. Mass.