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Bloomberg
Newswire
October
31, 2006
Oct.
31 (Bloomberg) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Sanofi- Aventis,
makers of the blood-thinner Plavix, hid the drug's health
risks to pump up profits, a Florida woman said in a lawsuit.
Dorothy
Hall claims Bristol-Myers and Sanofi misled consumers about
whether Plavix outperformed aspirin in preventing heart attacks
and didn't disclose that the drug could cause heart attacks
and strokes in some users. Plavix, with sales of $6.3 billion
last year, was the world's second-biggest- selling drug behind
Pfizer Inc.'s cholesterol pill Lipitor. The companies were
``in the business of hiding bad facts about their drug and
fabricating more favorable information so they could sell
large quantities of Plavix and make giant corporate profits,''
Hall's lawyers said in the suit, filed yesterday in federal
court in Trenton , New Jersey .
Both
New York-based Bristol-Myers and Paris-based Sanofi said third-quarter
profits slumped after generic copies of Plavix flooded the
market. Apotex Inc. started selling copies of Plavix in August
after U.S. regulators rejected an accord between the three
companies to delay generic sales until 2011. A judge ordered
Apotex to halt shipments until a court case over Plavix's
patents is heard. Bristol-Myers' net income plunged 65 percent
in the third quarter after it lost as much as $600 million
in Plavix sales. Sanofi said today that profit dropped 12
percent.
Marc
Greene, Sanofi's spokesman, wasn't immediately available for
comment. Tony Plohoros, a Bristol-Myers spokesman, said the
company hadn't seen the suit. ``We don't comment on pending
litigation,'' he said.
Consumers
Overcharged?
Hall's
suit, the first product-liability case over Plavix, comes
less than a week after an Alabama company sued Bristol- Myers
and Sanofi in federal court in New Jersey , saying the companies
were overcharging for the drug. The company seeks to represent
all companies that provide health coverage to workers who
take the medicine.
Lawyers
for Hall allege that Bristol-Myers and Sanofi knew for years
that Plavix wasn't more effective at warding off heart attacks
and strokes than aspirin. Studies by medical researchers,
some financed by the company, showed aspirin was just as good
at helping prevent heart problems, the suit said. Executives
``continued to exaggerate the results of their own studies
and to make false statements in their advertising and promotional
materials for the purpose of increasing their profit from
Plavix sales,'' the suit said.
Hall,
of Bonita Springs, Florida , took Plavix for about three years
starting in December 2002 and suffered two strokes while taking
the drug, the suit said. Her lawyers filed the suit in New
Jersey because one of Sanofi's U.S. offices is located in
Bridgewater , New Jersey .
$4
Per Day
Hall
and other consumers are paying the equivalent of $4 per day
for Plavix while aspirin costs the equivalent of 5 cents per
day, the suit said. Bristol-Myers shares rose 42 cents to
$24.75 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
They have risen 7.7 percent this year, valuing the company
at $48.7 billion. Bristol-Myers is the world's sixth-largest
drugmaker by market value.
Shares
of Sanofi, the world's third-largest pharmaceutical company
behind Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, fell 1.90 euros, or
2.8 percent, to 66.60 euros in Paris . The stock has fallen
10 percent this year, making it the biggest decliner in the
15- member Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceuticals index, which has
gained 3.8 percent.
The
case is Dorothy Hall and Thomas Hall v. Bristol-Myers Squibb
Co., et. al., U.S. District Court for the District of New
Jersey, No. 06-CV-05203 ( Trenton ).
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