HACKARD & HOLT IN THE NEWS
LV man sues over drug for diabetes
By Carri Geer
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Friday, May 05, 2000
A Las Vegas man filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Warner-Lambert Inc., claiming the drug maker's treatment for adult-onset diabetes has left him in need of a liver transplant.
Tom Ketchum, 57, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas with his wife, Denise.
Ketchum began taking the diabetes drug Rezulin in January 1999. In January of this year, doctors diagnosed him with irreversible liver damage accompanied by congestive heart failure and said he needs a liver transplant.
"Defendants aggressively marketed and sold Rezulin by misleading potential users about the product and by failing to adequately warn users of serious dangers which defendants knew or should have known resulted from the use of Rezulin," the lawsuit says.
No one at Warner-Lambert's New Jersey headquarters could be reached for comment Thursday.
Warner-Lambert pulled Rezulin from shelves in March after the Food and Drug Administration linked use of the drug to 90 liver failures.
"People continue to suffer severe, life-threatening injuries as a result of Warner-Lambert's reckless marketing of Rezulin," California attorney Michael Hackard, who represents the Ketchums, said in a prepared statement. "The 500,000 people who were taking this toxic cocktail can feel relieved they have a chance to find safe alternatives, but for too many people, Warner-Lambert's decision has come far too late."
Rezulin, which won "fast-track" government approval in January 1997, was first reported to be tied to liver failure and death in October of that year.
Hackard represents several other former Rezulin patients across the country. As in other lawsuits Hackard has prepared on behalf of former users of the drug, Ketchum's lawsuit claims a reckless drive for profits motivated Warner-Lambert's decisions regarding Rezulin.
"As a result of the manufacturing, marketing, selling and distributing of Rezulin, defendants have reaped approximately $1 billion at the expense of the health of individuals such as plaintiff Tom Ketchum," the document alleges.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims Denise Ketchum has suffered a loss of consortium.