Rezulin Drug

Pfizer Inc. must defend a lawsuit in which people claim its diabetes drug Rezulin damaged their livers. A federal appeals court in New York reinstated a case dismissed last year in a lower court. The appeals court said New York-based Pfizer wasn't shielded from the suit by state law in Michigan, as the lower-court judge had found. Plaintiffs in the case live in Michigan. Pfizer did not immediately comment.

After just two days of deliberations, a Los Angeles jury unanimously rejected claims Thursday that the diabetes drug Rezulin -- taken off the market in March 2000 because of safety concerns -- contributed to the deaths or illness of three people. The oval, tan pill, which generated $2.1 billion in sales, was used by 2 million people and linked to 63 confirmed fatalities during the more than two years it was available to the public. Since then, the pill's manufacturer, Warner-Lambert Co.

Pfizer Inc. said a California appeals court upheld denial of class-action status to a lawsuit by consumers who claim they were misled by advertising for the Rezulin diabetes drug. The state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles backed the ruling by a trial judge last year that there aren't enough common claims among more than 200,000 Rezulin users in the state to let them pursue the false-advertising suit as a group.

Pfizer Inc. must face a class-action suit in West Virginia over its Rezulin diabetes drug's role in destroying some patients' livers, a state appeals court ruled. The West Virginia Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling denying 5,000 former Rezulin users the right to join together to sue the drug maker over the costs of monitoring their health in the future. Pfizer's shares fell 9 cents to $34.31 on the NYSE.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee that recommended approving the diabetes pill Rezulin was never told that 11 research patients had suffered potentially life-threatening liver injuries or that an agency medical officer opposed the drug, according to three experts who served on the panel.

1996 June: The National Institutes of Health launches a $150-million experiment, testing whether Rezulin or another drug can prevent adult-onset diabetes. July 31: Warner-Lambert Co. applies to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of Rezulin as a prescription drug. Oct. 9: A veteran FDA medical officer recommends rejecting Rezulin, citing potential danger to the liver and heart as well as doubts about the drug's effectiveness. Nov.

JoAnn Ottmers begins each morning by swallowing the first of 39 pills she needs to get through the day since getting her new liver nine months ago. Then the 60-year-old widow waits for a visiting nurse to help with the most basic of functions: walking and going to the bathroom. Anger and depression alternate in her voice as JoAnn talks about the medical ordeal that has completely changed her life. "I can't go out by myself anymore. I can't drive. I can't walk in a big store . . .

There is no indication that anything is wrong at Jim and Margaret Hathaway's white clapboard house in this quiet bedroom community not far from Richmond. In the living room is a comfortable beige couch and scattered across the floor is an array of brightly colored plastic toys for the Hathaway's three children: 10-year-old Jessica, 6-year-old Amanda and 3-year-old Christopher. But beyond the surface normality lie grief, confusion and a host of frightening questions.

She was determined to help. That's how family and friends remember Audrey LaRue Jones. She prepared meals on Saturdays for those who couldn't. She taught Sunday school at the Methodist church. She worked with a local foundation to give canned goods to the needy. In one of America's most desperately poor cities, where storefronts routinely stand boarded, she taught high school English--and loved it. "She'd take in anybody; she loved to do for people," says her husband of 29 years, Elmer D.

The Food and Drug Administration dismissed explicit warnings of danger as the agency raced to approve a new diabetes drug that has been linked to at least 33 deaths due to liver injuries, records and interviews show. Senior FDA officials reviewed the drug on a "fast track" while downplaying harmful potential side effects. The drug, a pill called Rezulin, has become a sales sensation since it was launched in March of 1997 by the Warner-Lambert Co., a major U.S.