The folks over at 360 have a story this morning about the decision, Judy v. Pfizer, Inc., No. 042-1946-02, slip op. (Mo. Cir. St. Louis Co. July 27, 2010), in which the court denied a consumer fraud claim loosely predicated on off-label use/off-label promotion of Neurontin.  We’re, of course, pleased to see that, but as Dechert represents Pfizer in some Neurontin litigation (although not the Judy case), we can’t comment all that much about it.
But we can’t let it go unmentioned that the Missouri consumer fraud statute has a reputation as one of the most liberally construed in the country.  For instance, in our 50-state survey, we couldn’t even find anything good to report on fraud on the market in Missouri.  Nor (before now), did we have anything from Missouri on our state law class action denial cheat sheet.
Thus, the failure of an off-label use economic loss class action under the Missouri statute (on the perfectly reasonable grounds that the effectiveness of off-label uses – like all drugs, when you think about it – varies from person to person) tells us that these no-injury consumer fraud claims should fail in every state of the union.
That’s something we like being able to say.