US judge dismisses Louisiana Rezulin case vs Pfizer

NEW YORK, Nov 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed a case against Pfizer Inc in which the state of Louisiana sought to recover Medicaid payments for the withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin as well as the costs of treating illnesses caused by the drug, according to court papers.

Rezulin was pulled from the market in 2000 due to liver toxicity problems and the drug has since been the subject of numerous lawsuits. Pfizer (PFE.N) inherited the Rezulin litigation when it acquired Warner-Lambert Co.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of U.S. District Court in New York granted Pfizer's motion for summary judgment dismissing the case brought by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti on behalf of the state and its citizens, the court papers said.

It was not immediately clear how much Louisiana had been seeking in damages from the world's largest drugmaker. Louisiana was aiming to recover the amount paid to fill Rezulin prescriptions for state Medicaid recipients and to treat illnesses allegedly caused by Rezulin.

In handing down his decision, Kaplan said the plaintiffs failed to file papers needed to avoid a summary judgment.

"Indeed, the failure to file such an affidavit is fatal to a claim," Kaplan wrote in his decision.

The plaintiffs had argued that more discovery information was necessary from Pfizer and therefore a summary judgment in the case should not be entered before the information was provided.

However the judge said in his ruling that "a party resisting summary judgment on the ground that it needs discovery in order to defeat the motion must submit an affidavit" showing what facts are sought to resist the motion and what effort was made to obtain them. (Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)