Pfizer Inc. Facing Class Action Lawsuit

(Reuters / July 4, 2003) -- Pfizer said the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Thursday reversed a lower court order from November 2001 denying class certification to the suit and ordered the case returned to trial court.

Plaintiffs claimed that injuries might have developed after a patient stopped taking Rezulin, a prescription diabetes drug supplied by the Warner-Lambert Co. Pfizer acquired the company in June 2000.

Pfizer said the decision was binding only in West Virginia, and called it inconsistent with previous decisions that denied class action status on the federal level and in California.