Chantix Lawyers Witness Increase in Lawsuits

It has been nearly two years since litigation related to the smoking cessation drug Chantix was consolidated in a federal court in Alabama, and cases continue to pour in from across the country from patients who have experienced some of the behavioral and psychological side effects of the drug that has been deemed “the most dangerous brand-name drug on the market”. The beginning of this year saw over a thousand Chantix lawsuits consolidated in the Chantix multidistrict litigation taking place in the Northern District of Alabama. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which deals with cases such as this one, has yet to report the current number of Chantix cases that have been consolidated in this litigation.

Chantix lawyers are seeing more and more clientele as news of the side effects becomes more publicized. Side effects vary on an individual basis, but many plaintiffs have cited blackouts, mood swings, changes in behavior, depression, suicide ideation, and other emotional side effects when filing their Chantix lawsuit. The impact of these issues on a patient’s life varies greatly – while in almost every case the quality of life of a plaintiff was diminished, some are more serious. One Chantix case involves a murder-suicide that some believe could be linked to behavioral changes associated with the drug.

In the murder-suicide case, damages are being sought to cover expenses for four children a Pennsylvania man left behind after he killed his wife and himself. Other cases include wrongful death lawsuits filed by family members of Chantix patients who committed suicide. Most of the cases allege that Chantix was not tested completely in clinical trials because people with a history of mental illness were not included in these trials. In addition, many plaintiffs claim that side effects of Chantix were not sufficiently outlined on warning labels attached to the drug.

Pfizer, the drugmaker responsible for the distribution of Chantix, has also recently come under fire because it allegedly misreported Chantix side effects to the Food and Drug Administration by failing to properly report around 150 cases of suicides linked to Chantix. These “hidden” suicides, once added to the Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event record, more than doubles the number of Chantix suicides that the FDA was previously aware of.