Tara D. Sutton Appointed to Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in Chantix MDL
Feb 2, 2010
© Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. On February 2, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Inge Prytz Johnson appointed partner Tara D. Sutton to the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in the Chantix Multi-District Litigation. Chantix is a popular stop-smoking drug manufactured and sold by Pfizer. Patients taking Chantix have suffered dangerous and serious adverse side-effects, including suicidal behavior, agitation, depression and onset of psychiatric illnesses. In July 2009, the FDA imposed the most stringent warning possible on Chantix - a black box warning - alerting users that the drug may cause suicidal behavior and other psychiatric side effects. All lawsuits filed in federal court involving claims of injury from Chantix have been consolidated before Judge Johnson in In re Chantix (Varenicline) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2092 (N.D. Alabama).
Ms. Sutton is Chair of the
Mass Tort Litigation department and her practices focuses on representing individuals injured by defective drugs or medical devices. She is Lead Counsel in the Mirapex Multi-District Litigation and tried the first Mirapex case in the nation, resulting in a verdict in favor of plaintiffs for $8,279,300, including $7.8 million in punitive damages for failing to warn of risk of compulsive behaviors, including pathological gambling, from the taking the drug.
Charbonneau v. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc., 06-CV-1215 (D. Minn. July 30, 2008). After this verdict, more than 280 Mirapex cases represented by Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. were confidentially settled. Ms. Sutton was also a member of the Science and Discovery Committees in the Vioxx Multi-District Litigation and she was trial counsel in the historic Minnesota Tobacco Litigation.
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