March 29, 2006

According to the Wall Street Journal’s John Wilke and Scott Hensley ($), the New Jersey Teamsters insurance fund filed suit late Monday against pharma giant Pfizer. The claim at issue: that, beginning in 2001, Pfizer launched a wide-ranging Medicaid fraud by marketing the cholesterol drug Lipitor to patients whose low risk of heart attack did not merit it. No subpoenas have yet been issued. Lipitor is the world’s bestselling prescription drug, which gives this suit potentially huge repercussions. For more, check out Peter Lattman on the WSJ’s Law Blog.