Pfizer's Wyeth ordered to face class-action over Pristiq

* Wyeth market cap fell $7.6 bln after FDA action announced
* Shareholders say were misled over antidepressant's risks
* Pfizer bought Wyeth in 2009
* Pfizer says to vigorously defend itself

By Jonathan Stempel
Sept 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge has granted class-action
status to former Wyeth Inc shareholders who accused the company,
now part of Pfizer Inc, of misleading them about risks
associated with the antidepressant Pristiq.
The decision issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Richard
Sullivan in Manhattan is a victory for shareholders led by the
Pipefitters Union Local 537 Pension Fund in Boston.
It lets shareholders sue the largest U.S. drugmaker by
revenue as a group rather than individually, which could lead to
larger recoveries while lowering costs.
Christopher Loder, a Pfizer spokesman, said the company will
continue to vigorously defend itself in the case.
Wyeth shares lost more than $7.6 billion of market value on
July 24, 2007 after the company said the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration would not approve Pristiq to treat "hot flashes"
in post-menopausal women until it received information about
potential serious heart and liver problems associated with use
of the drug.
Shareholders said Wyeth should have revealed adverse effects
associated with Pristiq sooner, and that its failure to do so
caused its stock price to be inflated during the June 26, 2006
to July 24, 2007 class period. Pfizer bought Wyeth in 2009.
Pristiq generated $309 million of sales from January to June
for New York-based Pfizer, falling short of the "multi-billion
dollar potential" that Wyeth Chief Executive Robert Essner had
in October 2006 said the drug might have.
Analysts once hoped the drug, whose chemical name is
desvenlafaxine, could generate more than $2 billion of annual
sales, and help Wyeth withstand the 2010 loss of patent
protection for its anti-depression drug Effexor.
Essner and several other former Wyeth officials are also
defendants in the case.
Sullivan said the shareholders had shown they had relied on
Wyeth's alleged misrepresentations, and considered Pristiq
particularly important to Wyeth's overall business.
"Under the facts currently before it, including Wyeth's drug
pipeline and the looming expiration of patents concerning other
Wyeth drugs, the court concludes that the plaintiffs have
sufficiently demonstrated the materiality of the allegedly
omitted information," Sullivan wrote.
Laurie Largent and David Rosenfeld, lawyers for the
plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In morning trading, Pfizer shares fell 3 cents to $23.99.
The case, which has a Michigan retirement system as the
named plaintiff, is City of Livonia Employees' Retirement System
v. Wyeth et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New
York, No. 07-10329.