Minn. Jury Awards $8.3 Million in First Mirapex Trial

A Minnesota jury has awarded the plaintiff in the first product liability trial over the Parkinson's drug Mirapex $8.3 million in damages, including $204,000 to cover gambling losses he allegedly incurred because of compulsive behavior the medication caused.

After a two-week trial jurors in the Minneapolis-based multidistrict litigation for Mirapex suits deliberated for three days before returning the verdict for retired Milwaukee police officer Gary Charbonneau.

They awarded him $7.8 million in punitive damages and said Mirapex's co-marketers, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc., should split the amount.

The case is among more than 300 lawsuits consolidated before U.S. District Judge James M. Rosenbaum of the District of Minnesota, all claiming that Mirapex prompts compulsive gambling and aggressive behavior.

Charbonneau said he had little interest in gambling before he started taking Mirapex in 1997 but that between March 2002 and February 2006 he became a casino regular and amassed more than $260,000 in gambling losses.

When he stopped taking the drug, his penchant for gambling ceased, Charbonneau claimed.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer had argued that "common sense" would dictate that that they bear no responsibility for Charbonneau's gambling debt, but the jury found that the companies were "negligent to warn of the risks of pathological gambling" and awarded him $204,000 toward his alleged losses.

Mirapex was "in a defective condition and unreasonably dangerous to prospective users" because of the defendants' failure to warn, and the defective condition caused Charbonneau's injuries, according to the verdict.

Jurors upheld the plaintiff's negligent-misrepresentation claim as well, finding that the defendants misrepresented the facts "either by speaking or failing to speak of the risks of pathological gambling" and that Charbonneau and his prescribing doctors relied upon the companies' falsehoods in deciding to use Mirapex.

In addition to the damages for gambling losses, the jury granted Charbonneau $175,000 for pain and suffering and $15,300 for "opportunity costs" and awarded his wife $85,000 for loss of consortium.

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Charbonneau was represented by Vincent Moccio, Michael V. Ciresi, Tara Sutton and Gary L. Wilson of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis.Pfizer and Pharmacia are represented by Joseph Price of Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis and Michael K. Brown, Barry J. Thompson, Steven J. Boranian and Mildred Segura of Reed Smith in Los Angeles.Boehringer Ingelheim is represented by Scott Smith of Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson in Minneapolis and James E. Gray and Bruce R. Parker of Venable LLP in Baltimore.