The high court rejected an effort by Pfizer to deep six a securities lawsuit that alleged the drugmaker misrepresented safety issues about its Celebrex painkiller (see here). The lawsuit claimed Pharmacia, which Pfizer now owns, deliberately withheld results of a study showing Celebrex offered no safety advantages over less expensive meds, The Wall Street Journal writes.
Pfizer argued that investors missed a two-year statute of limitations to bring the lawsuit. But the Alaska Electrical Pension Fund maintained there was no evidence of a possible fraud until The Washington Post published an article about missing Celebrex data in August 2001, which meant its April 2003 lawsuit was within two years of the statute. The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled last year that the lawsuit was not filed too late.
The denial comes just one week after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a long-running securities fraud lawsuit can proceed against Merck concerning its Vioxx painkiller, which was withdrawn in 2004 over links to heart attacks and strokes following a few years of debate and controversy that the drugmkaer misrepresented safety issues (background). Pfizer's appeal had been on hold pending the outcome of the Merck case.
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Great stuff, Ed WSJ has it too now.
As I mentioned earlier this morning, in addition to sharing the wrinkle that both cases reached the US Supreme Court on a statute of limitations issue, and both outcomes were in favor of the plaintiff-investors, at the top court. . . . these two cases share an even more striking commonality.
Both of the legacy companies defending the suits bear strong handprints from their common ex-executives: Fred Hassan and Carrie Cox. [Now, to be fair, the Merck case presently involves Vioxx non-disclosures (pre-dating any Hassan influence); the ENHANCE non-disclosure suits (Hassan and Cox) haven't progressed this far, just yet. But they inexorably will.]
It really is "deja vu, all over again."
Namaste
Wow. Carrie Cox. Last time I heard about her was as referenced in the premarin launch speech when, as a Wyeth Mouseketeer, she was given credit for the "No Limits, No Boundaries" marketing campaign theme.
Oh. She's had many a Mouseketeer moment, since then, JiM. I'll never recount them all, exhaustively. . . but:
She launched and touted Celebrex (Pharmacia | 2000-2003);
She launched and touted Vytorin (schering-Plough | 2005 to late 2009). Tellingly, she sold $29 million of her stock options shortly after the Spring 2007 touting. The troubling ENHANCE results (completed in late 2006) then started to surface, internally, in e-mails;
And perhaps best of all, she confidently predicted, to all of Wall Street (on a Schering-Plough earnings webcast), in April 2008, a very quick (within 30 days, or so!) FDA approval of a then-joint Merck-Schering-Plough niacin-ezetimebe combo cholesterol management candidate. Not seven days later FDA rejected the candidate, outright.
And finnaly, she waltzed off the dance floor in November 2009, with about $50 million in golden parachutes (and tax gross-ups), when Merck busted-up Schering-Plough -- only to re-appear, on the boards of directors of Celgene and Cardinal Health, in early 2010. She never had a non-compete -- imagine that! A $50 million employment agreement ensuring vast payouts, but no non-compete, in return -- while at Schering-Plough.
God Bless America!