Pfizer’s defenses in these cases are pretty limited since the company already admitted criminal liability for defrauding doctors and patients through their faulty drug studies, misrepresented articles, and active promotion of off-label uses for Neurontin. However, this is not to say that Pfizer will not defend itself at all. Pfizer may try to obtain medical records to show that any side effects suffered were actually part of a pre-existing condition or were due to any other medications you were taking at the time. Pfizer may also argue as to the appropriate amount of damages for your claim. You and your attorney will need to be prepared to face these defenses.
If you try to sue your doctor for prescribing Neurontin for an off-label purpose, your doctor’s most likely defense will be that he or she relied on the information he or she read in medical journals or obtained directly from Pfizer when prescribing the Neurontin. This is a strong defense since Pfizer admits to having defrauded the medical profession both by itself promoting off-label uses for Neurontin and by paying physicians to sign off on articles that they did not write and which were based on faulty drug studies showing that Neurontin was safe and effective to use in treating the off-label ailments. You can expect that your pharmacist and the pharmaceutical sales rep will rely on the same type of defense. They believed what the company told them, even though it turned out to be false.
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