by Donna Knipp
Herald News

PATERSON - Two employees ot the Fire Department have joined a class action lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Warner-Lambert, charging that the drug company promoted a diabetes drug it knew could cause liver damage, irreversible heart damage, and a host of other debilitating side effects.

Marty Perrone, 52, of West Milford, who was a firefighter for 27 years, and 27 year-old Paul Scalzitti of Paterson, a Fire Inspector, have joined the action. Perrone now works in the department's communications office.

Both men started taking the diabetes drug Rezulin in 1997, when it was first marketed, and continued using it until the recall of the drug on March 21 by the Food and Drug Administration.

Rezulin is used to treat type 2 diabetes, the less severe form of the disease in which patients do not typically require outside sources of insulin.

Approximately 15 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and estimates say that between 500,000 and 1.5 million people took Rezulin during the three years it was on the market. Rezulin's recall had been sought by Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, since 1998, when the group said Rezulin caused more and greater side effects than older diabetes drugs, and was less effective than those medications.

The attorney for the class-action plaintiffs, Joe Santoli of Ridgewood, said the Morris Plains pharmaceutical firm knew of the drug's side effects but marketed it any way.

"There was a woman who died from liver failure in 1998 after taking Rezulin," Santoli said. Warner-Lambert came out with a press release saying her death was not related to Rezulin. That was only one example of the company's lies."

Santoli said Warner-Lambert made $700 million a year on the drug, and that it was the company's top earner.

Santoli also said Rezulin was heavily marketed to Spanish speaking patients, who have a relatively high incidence of diabetes. "I have copies of Spanish-language ads that I have had translated that are egregiously inaccurate," he said.

A Warner-Lambert spokes woman provided a statement in response to a request for comment. It said in part, "The company's conduct with respect to the development and marketing of Rezulin has been guided by strict adherence to FDA regulations. . . . We acknowledge that some patients have experienced adverse events while taking Rezulin. However, the company adequately warned about risks associated with the product, and we intend to vigorously defend any lawsuits filed against Warner-Lambert relating to Rezulin use."

The British manufacturer of the drug, Glaxo-Wellcome, pulled Rezulin off the market in England in 1997, the same year it was released. Public Citizen says there have been at least 130 cases of liver damage from the drug recorded worldwide, including six deaths.

Although the drug's side effects were well known, the lawsuit plain tiffs said, neither Warner-Lambert nor the FDA acted responsibly.

Paterson fire inspector Paul Scalzitti said he is upset because he doesn't know what the long term effects will be of having taken Rezulin for three years.

"They send me out every three months for blood work," he says. "My liver enzymes are elevated, but they don't really know what that will mean in the long run. There have been things in the news about people taking this drug who have passed away, people who have had to have liver transplants. And as a diabetic, you worry about all kinds of things."

Scalzitti said he has been having occasional chest pains, which sometimes last for a couple of hours at a time, since he started taking the drug in 1997, but that no one can tell him if they are related to Rezulin.

Marty Perrone, too, said the results of his ongoing blood tests will tell him more about what awaits him. Perrone's situation is complicated by a heart condition that created a block artery in 1995 It was treated with angioplasty.

"I don't blame the doctors," he said. "They were doing what they thought was right. But I think somebody should be held accountable. The government didn't do their job; they acted like just another big business. I don't like being a guinea pig for a drug company or for the government."

Santoli and his co-counsel Lee Squitieri of New York City have asked a Bergen County Superior Court to certify the suit as a national class. The court will then decide whether or not the cases will be consolidated in one location.