Class Action Lawsuit for Chantix Certified in Canada

An Ontario court has cleared the way for a class action lawsuit over Chantix to move forward in Canada, where the controversial drug is marketed as Champix.

The class action applies to Canadians who used Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug and developed psychological side effects, such as unusually agressive behavior, thoughts of suicide or suicide attempts.

The complaint mirrors allegations raised in hundreds of lawsuits for Chantix being pursued by consumers in the United States, who claim that Pfizer failed to adequately warn about the risk of side effects from the medication designed to help people stop smoking, which have been linked to a number of deaths and severe injuries from suicides and other psychological complication allegedly caused by the drug.

The class action arose from two lawsuits; one filed by Patricia Clow in British Columbia after her daughter, Heidi, committed suicide after taking Chantix for just four months, and the other by Ken Parker, who filed in Ontario after trying to kill himself. Parker only took Chantix for about a month.

In the United States, the federal Chantix litigation has been consolidated for pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

Although the complaints are not combined as a class action under the U.S. legal system, they have been centralized for pretrial proceedings before one judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. However, if a Chantix settlement or other resolution for the litigation is not reached during pretrial proceedings, the cases may be remanded back to the court where they were originally filed for individual trial dates.

Chantix (varenicline) was approved in the United States by the FDA in 2006, as a prescription medication to help people quit smoking. The drug works by reducing the positive feelings that come from cigarettes, blocking the receptors in the brain commonly stimulated by nicotine. However, the impact of the drug on the brain has resulted in a number of reports from users who experienced sudden, unusually aggressive behavior, thoughts of self-harm and suicide.

In the United States, Pfizer was required to place a “black box” warning on all Chantix labels in June 2009, outlining the risk of changes in behavior in a prominent box at the top of the label. This is the strongest label warning that can be placed on a prescription medication.

According to a pretrial order issued earlier this year, the first trial for injuries from Chantix in the federal MDL is expected to bein in October 2012, with a second trial scheduled for January 2013.