Neurontin: ‘A Good Drug… Marketed By Bad People’

By Ed Silverman // March 24th, 2010 // 7:32 am

A federal courtroom in Boston is hosting a trial between Pfizer and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, which claim the drugmaker committed fraud by aggressively promoting off-label use for its Neurontin epilepsy drug. Warner-Lambert, which developed the pill and was bought by Pfizer a decade ago, pleaded guilty in 2004 and paid $430 million to resolve off-label marketing charges brought by the US Justice Department. Now, Pfizer faces a $270 million fraud claim.

To defend the drugmaker, Pfizer attorney Raoul Kennedy made a curious admission to jurors in closing arguments. Neurontin, he said, is “a good drug that, at one time, at least in some parts of the country, may have been marketed by some bad people.” Hmm… Pfizer lawyers also argued that Kaiser docs continued to increasingly prescribe the pill even after Kaiser sued Pfizer in 2005, and that the insurer’s web site also still lists Neurontin as a drug for neuropathic pain.

For its part, Kaiser claims it was misled into allowing prescriptions to be written for migraines and bipolar disorders, among other things, but began talking to its doctors about the off-label marketing after it became known in 2002. As a result, Kaiser claims it would have saved a lot of money if Warner-Lambert, now part of Pfizer, hadn’t misled the insurer. As Bloomberg News notes, a verdict may influence other Neurontin lawsuits against Pfizer. In a ruling last year, US District Court Judge Patti Saris determined that fraud findings against Pfizer could be binding against the drugmaker in future trials.

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