Neurontin Class Action Over Marketing Claims Settled by Pfizer for $190M

Pfizer has reached a $190 million settlement agreement over claims that it manipulated the drug market to increase prices on its epilepsy drug Neurontin, resolving claims that the drug maker promoted the medication for unapproved uses and engaged in allegedly frivolous lawsuits against generic manufacturers.  

The Neurontin settlement comes in a class action lawsuit brought by buyers of the drug, who claimed that Pfizer tried to illegally maintain exclusivity on the drug and keep prices artificially high. The agreement, which was disclosed on Monday in court documents, did not include an admission of any wrongdoing by the drug manufacturer.

Pfizer agreed to the settlement two years after it was hit with a $47.36 million verdict in a trial involving similar allegations brought by the Kaiser Foundation. A federal judge then tripled the award to $142 million under U.S. racketeering laws, which are designed to fight organized crime. Pfizer’s attempt to appeal the verdict failed.

The company has been accused of illegally promoting Neurontin for uses not approved by the FDA, including as a treatment for migraines, bipolar disorder and other conditions. Drug manufacturers are banned from promoting drugs for “off-label” uses that the FDA has not yet approved.

The latest lawsuit to be settled also included charges that the company filed pointless lawsuits against generic manufacturers for patent claims the company supposedly knew to be untrue, in an effort to delay generics from reaching the market and forcing it to drop its prices on the drug.

Neurontin (gabapentin) is an epilepsy medication approved by the FDA in 1983, which generated $387 million in sales for Pfizer in 2008.

In 2004, Parke-Davis, a division of Warner-Lambert that was acquired by Pfizer, paid $430 million to the U.S. Justice Department over claims that they were illegally promoting Neurontin for off-label uses, including control of mood swings.

In 2009, Pfizer paid the Justice Department $2.3 billion to settle a number of off-label marketing claims which included its marketing of Neurontin.

While doctors are free to prescribe drugs for uses not approved by the FDA, manufacturers are prohibited from marketing the drugs for such uses that they have not established are safe and effective.

The company has also been hit by hundreds of Neurontin lawsuits brought by individual plaintiffs, who allege that Neurontin side effects increase the risk of suicide.

In 2008, the FDA required Neurontin and similar epilepsy drugs to begin carrying label warnings alerting users to the risk of suicidal thoughts.