Pfizer in $894M personal injuries settlement over Bextra and Celebrex

Pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer has reached agreements in principle to resolve substantially all of the personal injury and consumer fraud cases and state attorneys general claims involving its COX-2 inhibitor non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain drug Bextra (valdecoxib), which was voluntarily withdrawn from the US market in 2005. This was a year after fellow US drug major Merck & Co pulled its COX-2 drug Vioxx (rofecoxib) due to adverse events reported with the drug, and triggered an avalanche of law suits against the company as well as questions about similar compounds (Marketletters passim).

Additionally, following key court rulings in favor of Pfizer's Celebrex (celecoxib), claims regarding the latter, an effective pain treatment for millions of patients, will also be resolved as part of the settlement, Pfizer adds.

"We are pleased by the favorable rulings we have achieved in this litigation and believe that now is the right time to resolve these matters," said Amy Schulman, senior vice president and general counsel of Pfizer. "Inevitably, litigation can be distracting and putting these matters behind us helps our shareholders and, most importantly, patients and doctors," she noted.