Lyrica Lawsuit (Page 2)

Does anyone know if there is an ongoing lawsuit against the company who puts out Lyrica? I am a mess from it. Do we have a leg to stand on when it comes to the side effects they found out from people like us? I am a long termer. I have been taking 900 mg since 2005. Is there anyone representing us? Thank you

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WOW - I have been thinking that I was one of the lucky ones - I knew that many suffered awful side affects from Lyrica (I had checked when prescribed it for Fibro here in Australia) but was relieved that I seemed to get the benefits but no side affects - at least no weight gain and suicidal depression - and I cant blame a foggy brain on Lyrica as I already got that with Fibro Fog - tho perhaps Lyrica was making it worse? But the eye sight thing - now that is scary cause I know my eye sight has deteriorated since Ive been on Lyrica but I thought it was the Fibro! Given filling a script costs over $100 here in Aust.as it isnt covered for Fibro and now I have a 24/7 pain patch which is helping a lot - I think I will risk giving it up now tho have been on it for well over a year - tho very low dose only 75mg 1-2 daily! Whew will cease completely now. Thanks

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Lets try to keep each other posted as we all research the posibilty of going after this drug company, I know for a fact that half of the side affects we all seem to be experincing were not listed when the drug hit the market. I beleieve I might have been put on it pretty much as soon as it was released. I do fear of the affects of the drug which might not be reversible. I will be speaking with my nerologist next month and express my concerns. Just wonder how many of us are out there. thanks for all your info and maybe one day some lawyer will take on our case, please post if anyone finds a representative for us as will I

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Karen, I haven't found one yet. I talked to a couple and they both acted like I was crazy. He said you sound fine to me I sent out my info to that website that had an attorney from New York but I haven't heard anything back. Whats weird is I lost 2 teeth and had a root canal after taking lyrica and I have also had blurry vision for a few years, but I never associated those problems to the lyrica.I watched my Mom live with maculat defgeneration and going almost blind, it is horrible, I am so glad I realized that it was the lyrica that caused all my other problems. I have been off of it for over 2 years and I still have the effects it caused to my brain. This is scarry stuff. I see a shrink on a regular basis and I feel so good because he told me last month that he probably saved the life of a woman because of my story. She became extremely suicidal after taking Lyrica and when he realized that she had started taking it he told her about me and she stopped right away and is doing better now. We all really do need to pursue getting this off the market. They advertise it everyday and when you are in as much pain as I have been and all of you have been and you hear this stupid commerical that makes it sound like it is going to solve all your pain, of course you want to try it, anything to be able to actually stand up straight when you get out of bed in the morning. I am very Proud of that Amber woman for keeping the FDA up on what is going on with her eyesight. I will definately let everyone know if I find an attorney and everyone else please do the same.

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Sadly lawsuits against drug companies do not happen in Australia but I was still pleased to get the link to these postings as now I know my eyesight issues are far more likely to be the Lyrica than the Fibro and/or ageing issues and natural degeneration. It certainly helped me with my Fibro spasms but the 24/7 pain patch and Panadeine Forte and Endone will have to do from now on - Im OFF the Lyrica and hoping that the Fibro Fog hasnt been made irreversibly worse due to the Lyrica as damaged / altered grey matter is also a Fibro thing anyway.

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has anyone tired lidocaine patches? I have had a lot of sucess with these for pain. I like them because the medicine goes directly where I need it and not thru my body. see the link... talk to your doctor. http://www.lidocainepatch.com

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I took Lyrica for 15 days 2 years ago. I followed instruction as advised. I didn't feel any better or any worse. I'd been told by my GP that it might take 10-20 days to actually notice any pain relief. I've had Fibro/CFS for 21 years with high levels of pain most days. This was to be my 'salvation', after having such chronic pain for so long and trying many different meds for it, and having many allergies& reactions to most of those meds. . But the fact that I hadn't noticed any change in my pain levels, one way or the other, was suspicious to me. Then on the 15th day, I suddenly became absolutely hysterical.(I'm normally a very calm, collected person who can handle almost any kind of stressful situation). I was shaking all over and so very nauseous, and sobbing uncontrollably, and I was not able to pull myself together. I put a call thro to my physician of 33 years, and was 'screaming' at the nurse, trying to tell her what was happening to me. She wanted to take my phone number and call me right back. I remember saying to her.....NO! I NEED HELP NOW! IF YOU CAN'T HELP ME, JUST SAY SO, CAUSE I'M GOING OFF THIS TERRIBLE MED WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR HELP. She finally got me calmed down. My own GP was outta the office and the nurse was there on her day off, doing some paper work.(Lucky for me!) She had to find another doctor in the practice to tell my story to and get some advice. AND, she did call me back in just a few minutes with instructions on how to titrate down off it. Good new is.......I did get off it, with no big problems. But I definiltey would not recommend it to another living soul! Tnx Jan

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see this information... I would like to send a FOIA request to see which drugs were not even tested and see which side effects are part what was falsified. Lycria causes swelling... well at my worst i was gaining about 10 pounds of fluid a day then loosing it by morning only to start the 10 pound cycle over again the next day. 70 pound weight gain in a year. Lymphatic problems are listed under rare side effects. What if all of this swelling is from peoples lymphatic systems being compromised from the drug? Pfizer needs to be held responsible for the problems this wonder drug/poison is causing.

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sorry here is the story. http:/­/­www.yourlawyer.com/­articles/­read/­17591

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forgot to attach the web site. sent in the post but it is delayed when a web link is attached to the reply. sorry

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google this name and see what you find...

Dr. Scott S. Reuben

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Did anyone else google this Dr. Reuben? If not you should. It seems to me that this info should definately be good cause for an attorney to take our cases, I wonder if there is a way an attorney can sue him rather than the drug company? Anyone else have any more insight on this please comment.

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I agree with Connie.

but i also think Pfizer the maker of lyrica is also accountable. Did you see that the good doctor was on Pfizer's payroll?

Read this quote from a story on the doctor. Seems that if it is too good to be true then it is, or at least someone should have questioned his outstanding drug study results...

Interestingly, when you look at Scott’s output over the last 15 years, he never had a negative study,” said one colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “In fact, they were all very robust results—where others had failed to show much difference. I just don’t understand why anyone would do this or how anyone could pull this off for so long.”

More questions raised...

What’s particularly surprising given the dimensions of the case, Ms. Johnston said, is that Dr. Reuben’s research managed to raise no alarms among peer reviewers.

Also the hospital where this all came to light is no longer using Lyrica on their surgery patients...

In light of the situation and economic concerns, UPMC has stopped giving celecoxib and pregabalin (lyrica) to surgery patients “until we have some very formal evidence that we should do something else,” Dr. Chelly said. “In this day and age, doing multimodal [therapy] is expensive. Any institution is going to look at evidence-based clinical decisions, and unless we have very strong data, it is a problem.”

One of the pillars of support for combining celecoxib and pregabalin (lyrica) was a 2006 study in Anesthesia and Analgesia—for which Dr. Reuben has been a reviewer—by Dr. Reuben and colleagues that found the approach effective in patients undergoing spinal surgery. That paper has been withdrawn. “If we take out [those] data in spinal,” Dr. Chelly said, “you really don’t have any evidence that the combination is working.”

I will keep looking and post what i find. If anyone else has information please share.

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I agree with Connie.

but i also think Pfizer the maker of lyrica is also accountable. Did you see that the good doctor was on Pfizer's payroll?

Read this quote from a story on the doctor. Seems that if it is too good to be true then it is, or at least someone should have questioned his outstanding drug study results...

Interestingly, when you look at Scott’s output over the last 15 years, he never had a negative study,” said one colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “In fact, they were all very robust results—where others had failed to show much difference. I just don’t understand why anyone would do this or how anyone could pull this off for so long.”

More questions raised...

What’s particularly surprising given the dimensions of the case, Ms. Johnston said, is that Dr. Reuben’s research managed to raise no alarms among peer reviewers.

Also the hospital where this all came to light is no longer using Lyrica on their surgery patients...

In light of the situation and economic concerns, UPMC has stopped giving celecoxib and pregabalin (lyrica) to surgery patients “until we have some very formal evidence that we should do something else,” Dr. Chelly said. “In this day and age, doing multimodal [therapy] is expensive. Any institution is going to look at evidence-based clinical decisions, and unless we have very strong data, it is a problem.”

One of the pillars of support for combining celecoxib and pregabalin (lyrica) was a 2006 study in Anesthesia and Analgesia—for which Dr. Reuben has been a reviewer—by Dr. Reuben and colleagues that found the approach effective in patients undergoing spinal surgery. That paper has been withdrawn. “If we take out [those] data in spinal,” Dr. Chelly said, “you really don’t have any evidence that the combination is working.”

I will keep looking and post what i find. If anyone else has information please share.

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I did google dr scptt s reuben and now im really scared and upset if what im reading is that we were misled when it came to the drug Lyrica! I have contacted several lawyers and told them breifly to google that dr and see if maybe one of them can research it and find out more about this supposedly Mirical drug LYRICA Has anyone eles tried to contact a lawyer just to see if they answer. I beleve their is a case their because beleive me I have najor brain problems, meaning major memory loss i cant talk right amd its very difficult to speak and simple sentence I just cant get it out. Eceryone should google that dr and see what you get from the story, were we lied to?

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More Pfizer information....

Pfizer Geodon Whistleblower Represented by Parker Waichman Alonso LLP
Sep 9, 2009 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP A whistleblower who was involved in last week's record breaking $2.3 billion Pfizer settlement was represented by the Great Neck, NY law firm of Parker Waichman Alonso LLP. The whistleblower lawsuit alleged that Pfizer illegally promoted the off-label use of the antipsychotic medication Geodon.

We are proud of our client and the other relators who stepped forward to expose Pfizer's wrongdoing, and helped to make this settlement possible, said David Krangle, an attorney with Parker Waichman Alonso LLP. We are also proud that our firm was able to play a part in obtaining justice for American taxpayers.

The Parker Waichman Alonso lawsuit was one of nine settled by the U.S. Department of Justice that charged Pfizer illegally marketed Geodon, as well as the pain killer Bextra; Zyvox, an antibiotic; and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug. The civil settlement also resolves allegations that Pfizer paid kickbacks to health care providers to induce them to prescribe these, as well as other, drugs.

As we reported last week, the $2.3 billion settlement is the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Geodon portion of the settlement was $301 million.

Under the terms of the settlement, Pfizer subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. has also agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation that it illegally promoted the off-label use of Bextra. Pharmacia & Upjohn will pay $1.3 billion toward the total settlement.

Pfizer also has agreed to enter into an expansive corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. That agreement provides for procedures and reviews to be put in place to avoid and promptly detect conduct similar to that which gave rise to this matter, the Justice Department said.

Whistleblower lawsuits are filed under the False Claims Act, a federal law that empowers people to file lawsuits against federal contractors claiming fraud against the government. Successful whistleblowers can receive a portion of the damages recovered. According to the Department of Justice, the whistleblowers involved in last week's Pfizer settlement will receive $102 million of the federal fines.

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Here is more information on Pfizer. If they can spend 6 million dollars to promote lyrica... then they can spend the money to fix the health problems it has caused...


Lyrica, Cymbalta Fibromyalgia Promotions Questioned
Feb 9, 2009 | Parker Waichman Alonso LLP Two drug makers are spending a fortune to promote medications for a disease that some doctors say may not even exist. According to the Associated Press, Eli Lilly and Pfizer have donated more than $6 million to nonprofit groups to spread information about fibromyalgia in an effort to boost sales of Cymbalta and Lyrica.

Fibromyalgia, defined as a chronic, widespread pain condition of unknown origin, is a controversial diagnosis. No biological tests exist to diagnose fibromyalgia, and the condition cannot be linked to any environmental or biological causes. While the Associated Press said that doctors agree that suffers' symptoms are real, they don't agree that a disorder called fibromyalgia is behind them. But real or not, there is obviously a huge market for fibromyalgia treatments.

Pfizer's Lyrica was the first prescription medication approved to treat fibromyalgia, though no one can explain exactly how it works. Lyrica was first approved to treat epilepsy. In 2004, the drug was reviewed by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) as a remedy for diabetic nerve pain. According a New York Times report published last January, the reviewers recommended against approving the drug, citing its side effects. Lyrica causes weight gain and edema, or swelling, as well as dizziness and sleepiness.

But the FDA ignored the advice of Lyrica reviewers, and approved it anyway. Then Pfizer asked the FDA to expand the approved uses of Lyrica to include the treatment of fibromyalgia, and the agency did so in June 2007. According o the Times report, in clinical trials, patients taking Lyrica reported that their pain fell on average about 2 points on a 10-point scale, compared with 1 point for patients taking a placebo. About 30 percent of patients said their pain fell by at least half, compared with 15 percent taking placebos.

Pfizer’s success has encouraged other drug makers to seek approval for their own fibromyalgia drugs. Eli Lilly's antidepressant Cymbalta received such approval last June.

According to the Associated Press, both drug makers are spending big bucks to promote not only their drugs, but fibromyalgia as well. According to the report, key components of their marketing onslaught include more than $6 million in grants to nonprofit groups to pay for fibromyalgia medical conferences and educational campaigns. And that was only in the first three quarters of 2008, the Associated Press said. It's also more than the drug makers gave towards Alzheimer's Disease and diabetes, which are universally recognized as real diseases.

One doctor interviewed by the Associated Press called Eli Lilly's and Pfizer's fibromyalgia promotion efforts disease mongering. That doctor, Frederick Wolfe, was lead author of the guidelines defining fibromyalgia in 1990, but now doubts the very existence of the disease.

Despite such concerns over the tactics used by Eli Lilly and Pfizer, they do seem to be working. According to the Associated Press, between the first quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008, sales rose from $395 million to $702 million for Lyrica, and $442 million to $721 million for Cymbalta.


*** i hope this information is helpful. it is a lot to post, but if i try to post the web link to the story it is delayed for some time. If posting the whole story is bothersome please let me know. i just hope by sharing this information people will see what this drug is really all about and get off of it before it is too late.

one voice alone will not be heard... but many together will make them listen.

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the birth of lyrica...

Lyrica & Neurontin Association
Lyrica (Generic: Pregabalin) is prescribed to patients for the management of neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Lyrica, manufactured by Pfizer, received FDA approval on December 30, 2004. Seizure patients also use Lyrica. Lyrica was manufactured as a substitute medication for Neurontin. Lyrica has only been tested and prescribed to adults 18 or older. Lyrica has not been studied in children under the age of 18. Lyrica, just like Neurontin, may cause increased risk of suicide and suicidal behavior.

Now google this- neurontin lawsuit 2008

Pfizer has done the same things with this drug as they have with Lyrica. promoting it for off market uses...

So it seems they are getting away with this for the second time.

this is long sorry... just felt like it needs to be read.

A lawsuit filed in June of 2002 claims that pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis illegally marketed its anticonvulsant medication Neurontin (generic name: gabapentin) to doctors for uses unapproved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Documents filed in Franklin v. Parke-Davis and unsealed over the last several months allege that the company deliberately formed a plan to persuade doctors to prescribe Neurontin for bipolar disorder, diabetic neuropathy, migraine, panic disorder and other conditions - all in the name of profit.

The lawsuit alleges that Parke-Davis paid for small, inexpensive clinical studies and paid to have the successful ones - that is, those showing results favorable for selling purposes - written up for medical journals. Then, according to National Public Radio, salesmen were told to whisper 'Neurontin for bipolar disorder,' 'Neurontin for migraine,' 'Neurontin for everything,' into doctors' ears. Physicians were also paid to attend lavish functions and hear Neurontin's virtues extolled, and were sometimes rewarded for writing certain levels of Neurontin prescriptions.

Unsealed documents in the case indicate that Parke-Davis undertook this strategy for two reasons:

1.Neurontin was approved only for add-on use in epilepsy, and only up to 1800 mg dosage. There are about 2 million people in the US with epilepsy - a relatively small market.
2.To have obtained FDA approval for other uses of Neurontin would have been expensive and time-consuming, with approval possibly not coming until the patent ran out - at which time generics would become available and the profits would drain away.
According to NPR's Snigdha Prakash, in 2001 $1.8 billion worth of Neurontin was sold in the United States, and a staggering 80 percent of that was for unapproved uses.
Dr. Paul Keck, in a September 2002 article Clinical Management of Bipolar Disorder, reported that In 2 studies, a placebo-controlled crossover monotherapy trial and a placebo-controlled, parallel-group, adjunctive treatment trial, gabapentin-treated patients did not display significantly greater improvement in manic symptoms than patients receiving placebo.

One such study was paid for by Parke-Davis and concluded: The findings of this study did not demonstrate that gabapentin is an effective adjunctive treatment when administered to outpatients with bipolar disorder.

Dr. Gary Sachs, director of the Harvard Bipolar Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, helped design and conduct such a study for Parke-Davis. He said on NPR's All Things Considered program: Yes, patients get better on Neurontin, but they get better at an even more impressive rate if they don't get Neurontin. He called the results shocking, saying the patients did better with sugar pills than on Neurontin. However, Parke-Davis withheld the results of that study until 2000 - about when the patent on Neurontin ran out.

Parke-Davis was acquired in 2000 when Pfizer, Inc. bought its parent company, Warner-Lambert. Pfizer has consistently declined to comment on the pending litigation except to say that the alleged actions took place before the year 2000, and that Pfizer does not engage in off-label marketing. However, Neurontin continues to be prescribed and sold for mostly unapproved uses such as bipolar disorder - because doctors were told it worked, and have not been told it doesn't work.

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I wrote a long email a few days ago, about what had happened to me after taking Lyrica for 15 days. But after reading all your comments, it seems some of us may have other things in common! I was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration in 4/09. I'm the older of 7 and no one in my family has any eye probs like this. My mom went to her grave at age 80 with perfect vision. My dad died at age 67 and never wore glasses. Soooo, you tell me!!! AND approx 2 yrs ago, my teeth began literally falling out either in my food, mostly in my hands. I'd feel something, like a little pebble in my mouth, and when I spat it out, it would always be a tooth, I wasn't even aware of being loose. It had decayed from the inside out. No pain, at all.My teeth went from bad to worse. I have seen 3 oral surgeons and am now scheduled to have, what few teeth are remaining, extracted and dentures put in. I've always had beautiful, white,even teeth, just like my dad did.. I blamed all this on Fibro. You know, Fibro people DO have dry mouth. So, it made sense. Thats why my teeth were all falling out. Also, my hair began to thin, badly in last 1-2 yrs, until now I'm close to being bald right in the front. (I'm female BTW, so this is very disconcerting to me) I still have very long brown hair, even at age 72.it hasn't turned gray even yet. I'd been thinking of having doctor check my thyroid, cause I was sure the hair loss was a thyroid problem. And.who's to say? It still may be. but I'm beginning to smell a 'skunk' in this Lyrica prob with the pharmaceutical company.I appears this med was pushed thru without a thorough research of it. Pretty scarey ! Right? Keep us all posted everyone.

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I think I can only be thankful (if you could call it that) that Lyrica may only be responsible for causing my eyesight to deteriorate more rapidly than reasonable but I do have to say that it does work really well for me with respect to stopping the muscle spasms that cause pain. I have a 24/7 opoid pain relief patch for my Fibromyalgia; plus I take P.Forte and Endone pain relief; and often I can take those and still have pain and can feel the spasms around my body and when I then take a Lyrica (on top of all else) finally the pain is relieved tho fort.still only on 150mg daily and would not dream of going any higher due to potential side effects. But then I am always concerned about long term effects of all the pain relief that I need to simply exist due to this god awful illness.

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As said in a previous comment, I tried to talk to a lawyer about this in early 2008 after being on Lyrica for 9 months. It destroyed my life in a matter of - let's see 9 months. I lost my job and almost my life. Now, I know after I stopped taking it - it has also ruined my eyesite and my teeth. All the lawyer is saying is that the drug companies are protected by the fine print after the Phen-Phen case it would be nearly impossible to get a class action lawsuit together! However, after reading the 1,000's of e-mails, not just on this site, but others, you would think that something could get put together by all the people that have suffered.

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