Family Wins Lawsuit in Man’s Rezulin Death
From Times Wire Reports
Warner-Lambert Co. unit must pay $1.55 million in damages to the family of a man who died after taking its Rezulin diabetes drug for about a month, a jury ruled.
State court jurors in Tulsa deliberated more than 10 hours before voting, 10-2, that Rezulin was responsible for Michael Wakefield’s death. The 41-year-old salesman died of liver failure in 1999.
The case is among thousands of suits filed on behalf of former Rezulin users who say company officials hid the drug’s health risks to pump up sales. The drug was yanked off the market in the U.S. in March 2000 after being linked to at least 63 liver-related deaths.
