Pfizer Inc. has reached an undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit filed by a Demopolis man who claims the company’s smoking cessation drug Chantix caused him to have suicidal thoughts and other psychological problems after he began taking it in 2007. A trial over claims in the lawsuit was to begin Jan. 23 and was to have been the first test case to be tried among more than 2,600 lawsuits filed in federal court nationwide making claims about Chantix. Ernest Cory, attorney for Billy G. Bedsole Jr., told U.S. District Judge Inge P. Johnson this morning that a settlement had been reached with Pfizer in the case during a hearing this morning. He told her that attorneys should have an order to her in the next 30 days for her to dismiss Bedsole’s case. Attorneys for Bedsole and a Pfizer spokesman said the terms of the settlement will not be public. “Mr. Bedsole and his family have been through an incredible ordeal and they are pleased this case is settled and can close this chapter of their lives,” Cory said. “And I wish them the best going forward.” Chris Loder, a spokesman for Chantix who was at the hearing, said that both parties had reached an agreement “in principle under confidential terms” to resolve the Bedsole case. Loder defended the drug. “We believe that Chantix is an important treatment option for smokers who want to quit and the company stands by the medicine and its continued use in appropriate patients,” Loder said. “As the health benefits of quitting smoking are immediate and substantial the company will continue to defend this important FDA approved medicine in the courts.”
