US Supreme Court agrees to hear Pfizer patent case

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would decide a case initially filed by people who said they were harmed by the withdrawn diabetes drug Rezulin, a dispute that hinges on whether state or federal law take precedence when the two clash.

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) unit Warner-Lambert, the maker of Rezulin, appealed to the high court after a federal appeals court in New York reinstated the lawsuit in October.

The lawsuit, filed by Michigan residents who said their injuries were caused by Rezulin, had been dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in 2005.

He ruled that state law shielded pharmaceutical companies from liability claims unless there is evidence the company misrepresented or withheld material information in obtaining approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the drug.

Rezulin was pulled from the market in March 2000 at the request of the FDA after about 100 people who took the medicine needed liver transplants or died from acute liver failure.

The New York appeals court had reinstated the lawsuit because, it argued, a lower court judge had wrongly concluded that federal law preempted claims made under a Michigan state product liability statute.

Pfizer, which acquired Warner-Lambert some three months after Rezulin was withdrawn, fought thousands of lawsuits claiming that Warner-Lambert failed to inform the public of the drug's liver toxicity risks.

The justices will hear arguments in the case earlier next year, with a decision likely by the end of June. (Reporting by Diane Bartz and Jim Vicini)