Another article from the Indianapolis Star on yet another case filed against
Zoloft.
Vickery goes after Pfizer and its antidepressant Zoloft
Staff Report
The Indianapolis Star
Last updated 11:01 PM, EST, Sunday, April 23, 2000
Andy Vickery aims to go beyond Prozac.
He’s sighted a new target: Pfizer Inc. and its Prozac-like antidepressant,
Zoloft.
Vickery has three lawsuits pending against Pfizer. Last year, he settled
another: a high-profile case involving Hollywood comedian-actor Phil Hartman.
Hartman was shot to death in 1998 by his wife, Brynn, who then killed
herself. Vickery’s lawsuit alleges she had taken Zoloft and it turned her
violent.
Vickery, who represented the couple’s children, said he settled the case out
of court with Pfizer for $100,000, waiving his legal fee.
The settlement, he said, “was making a statement for them (the children), for
their benefit in the future . . . to know there’s another side to the story
(of their parents’ deaths).”
Vickery recently deposed Pfizer’s scientific experts for a case in federal
court in Kansas City, where he sued last year on behalf of the parents of a
13-year-old boy, Matthew Miller, who hanged himself at home in 1997 after
taking Zoloft for a week.
The trial is set for July 18 in what’s shaping up as a pitched legal battle.
Last year, Pfizer lawyers asked the court to strike Vickery’s entire
complaint in the Miller case, calling it “impertinent” and “scandalous.”
The judge rejected the motion, though Vickery agreed to delete sections.
The clash has Vickery hankering to prod the New York drugmaker again.
“Wait until you see my next pleading on Pfizer. The next one’s going to hit
’em like a turd in a punchbowl,” he said.
“However much they didn’t like the complaint we did in the Miller case, they
will like the next one much much less.”
A Pfizer spokeswoman declined to talk about Vickery, saying, “We don’t
comment on lawsuits.”
