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Attorneys press discovery effort in litigation over cholesterol drug.

Article Excerpt
What did manufacturer Bayer Corp. know about the dangers of the cholesterol-lowering drug it pulled from the market in 2001--and when did it know it? That's what lawyers are gearing up to ask in courtrooms across the country. About 6 million people--700,000 in the United States--were taking Baycol (sold overseas as Lipobay) when it was recalled for causing muscle damage that can lead to kidney failure. More than 10,000 patients or their families have filed suits against Bayer.

The first two Baycol suits to go to trial resulted in defense verdicts, but undaunted plaintiff attorneys are glad to have an oar in the water. Now they're prepared to row hard.

"Neither case really has any bearing on future litigation," said Jim Szaller of Cleveland, cochair of ATLA's Baycol Litigation Group, comprising about 600 plaintiff attorneys who are sharing documents and other information. "The first case to go to trial, in Texas, did not have available all the depositions--it couldn't; they're still ongoing. And it didn't have all the punitive defendants. It named only Bayer Corp., not the parent company, Bayer AG, not GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer's marketing partner, [so] there is a slew of documents and depositions that weren't available to the plaintiffs."

The FDA approved Baycol (cerivastatin) in June 1997. It was the sixth entry in a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, which are the third most prescribed drugs in the country--about 8 million Americans take them. According to the agency, all six statins--the others are Lipitor (atorvastatin), Lescol (fluvastatin), Mevacor (lovastatin), Pravachol (pravastatin), and Xocor (simvastatin)--carry a slight risk of liver or kidney complications, including rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo), a muscle disorder that can lead to kidney failure. However, the FDA has found that "cases of fatal rhabdomyolysis in association with Baycol use have been reported more frequently than [with] other...