Jury finds against Pfizer, calling for $142M in damages for drug fraud; Teva gets tentative OK for generic Argatroban

US drug behemoth Pfizer has been found by a jury yesterday to have committed racketeering fraud in the marketing of its epilepsy drug Neurontin ((gabapentin) and must pay $142.1 million in damages, according to multiple media reports. "The message, if there was a message, is that they acted in a fraudulent manner," said Hank Pierotti, foreman of the eight-person federal jury in Boston, after the verdict. "If you're fraudulent, you deserve to be punished,' he stated, noted Bloomberg.

The case came as a result of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals contending - in a month long trial - that Pfizer illegally promoted Neurontin for unapproved uses. The insurer said it was misled into believing migraines and bipolar disorder were among the conditions that could be treated effectively with Neurontin, approved in 1993 by the Food and Drug Administration for epilepsy.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, the first insurer to try a Neurontin case against the drugmaker, told jurors Kaiser was forced to pay $90 million more than it should have for Neurontin.