The source of this story is Bloomberg: http://tinyurl.com/bjtuf

Pfizer's Mirapex Faulted in Gambling Addiction Suits (Update2)
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
Inc. were accused of distributing a drug for treating Parkinson's disease
that turned some people into gambling addicts, in a lawsuit filed in
Ontario Superior Court.

The Canadian suit follows a similar complaint filed in September in federal
court in the Central District of California. Both suits are seeking class
action status.

Several million U.S. residents take Mirapex for Parkinson's and other
conditions, said attorney Daniel Kodam, who filed the California case.
Mirapex, distributed in the U.S. by both companies and in Canada by a
Boehringer unit, mimics the action of dopamine in the brain, he said. Lack
of dopamine can lead to tremors and rigidity, he said. About 2.5 percent of
Mirapex users develop a gambling addiction, Kodam said.

``These people have no history of gambling,'' said Darcy Merkur, a lawyer
with Thomson, Rogers, who filed the Canadian suit Friday. ``They don't have
a propensity to gamble.''

Bryant Haskins, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest
drugmaker, said the company hadn't had an opportunity to review the suit
filed in Canada and was ``not in a position to respond directly to it.''

Haskins said Pfizer wasn't aware ``of evidence establishing a causal
relationship between Mirapex and compulsive behavior.'' He said the company
sent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration all reports it had received of
such behavior ``in association with'' Mirapex.

Gambling Link

Haskins said Pfizer and Boehringer also added statements to Mirapex labels
to inform health care professionals that ``there have been infrequent
spontaneous post-marketing reports of compulsive behavior in patients who
reportedly had received the medication.''

Ingelheim, Germany-based Boehringer, the world's biggest family-owned drug
company, didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

According to a study published in the Aug. 12, 2003, issue of
``Neurology,'' researchers concluded that high doses of some medications
used to treat Parkinson's, including Mirapex, might lead to a gambling
addition among some patients.

Researchers at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Research Center in Phoenix
examined data of almost 2,000 Parkinson's patients over the course of a
year. Nine of the patients were diagnosed as pathological gamblers, and
seven of them had started gambling within a month of an increase in the
dosage of Mirapex or another Parkinson's drug they were taking.

Gambling Losses

Two patients lost more than $60,000, and none of them had a problem before
taking the drugs, according to the study.

Gerard Schick, a resident of Midland, Ontario, a city north of Toronto and
near a government-approved Indian casino, lost about C$100,000 ($80,757)
playing slot machines while taking Mirapex, Merkur said. Other Mirapex
users who have come forward claimed to have lost as much as C$750,000, he
said.

Merkur is seeking C$50 million in punitive damages, plus an unspecified
amount to cover the actual gambling losses incurred. He's also seeking C$3
million per person for pain and suffering, emotional hardship, and loss of
earnings. Merkur said he expects more than 100 Canadians will be
represented in the suit.

In the California case, Kodam said he will meet with attorneys for the two
companies prior to a scheduled June 23 hearing to amend the complaint and
convert it to a class action.

The Canadian case is Between Gerard Schick and Boehringer Ingelheim
(Canada) Ltd., No. 05CV288851 CP, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Toronto.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Joe Schneider in Toronto at  [log in to unmask]

Last Updated: May 9, 2005 17:31 EDT

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