Pfizer Hounded by Ex-Staffer Who Claims Anti-Smoking Drug Made Him Psychotic

One of Pfizer's former employees alleges that Chantix, the company's anti-smoking drug, gave him depression, mania, and psychosis leading to a hospitalization in March 2008. The case is unusual because drug company employees aren't usually the plaintiffs in personal injury cases against their own employers.

The litigation also represents a management nightmare: Plaintiff Randall Sloan has a history of mental issues pre-existing his Chantix claims -- he also filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Pfizer that was dismissed, according to court documents.

Depending on your point of view, the Sloan saga is either about a disgruntled former staffer pursuing an irrational grudge against Pfizer, or it's an example of how employers who provide mental health benefits sometimes fail the workers who try to use them.

There is something to be learned from it: Sloan's anger against Pfizer was sparked in part because he allegedly wasn't allowed to work from home while other workers were. It sounds trivial -- if you're a manager. From an employee's point of view, such little differences in the way bosses treat employees can be perceived as major injustices that can be ruinous to workplace morale.

Sloan was hired by Pfizer in New York in 2001 as a clinical programs associate on a salary of $65,000. In 2005, he was diagnosed with unspecified "mental disabilities" that were exacerbated by a diagnosis of HIV, according to his suit. He took some time off work under Pfizer's short-term disability plan to deal with the diagnoses. Sloan requested permission to work from home, but that was denied. The denial was discrimination, Sloan alleged, because he was the ony gay male on a staff team that consisted entirely of straight females, one of whom was allowed to work from home for six months while she planned her wedding, according to a letter from Sloan's lawyer:

Pfizer ordered him back to work toward the end of the year, Sloan refused and was terminated in February 2006. His discrimination suit was dismissed.

Two years later, according to a lawsuit Sloan filed earlier this year, he was hospitalized for a range of mental issues after taking Chantix. The drug has been controversial since it was launched and it carries a "black box" warning for "serious neuropsychiatric events." The drug is associated with suicide.

Given Sloan's history, he was probably a bad candidate for the drug. Sloan's doctor is not named as a defendant, however. Rather, Sloan blames Pfizer for selling a drug he alleges is too dangerous to be on the market. Sloan's case is part of multi-district litigation in Alabama federal court involving 275 cases alleging a wide variety of side effects from Chantix. Pfizer denies the claims and is fighting the cases:

Mr. Sloan is a former Pfizer employee who has twice now sued Pfizer. In his first lawsuit, which was dismissed by a court in 2009, Mr. Sloan alleged employment-related claims. Mr. Sloan has now filed a second lawsuit alleging personal injury due to his use of a prescription medication, Chantix.

These claims are wholly without merit and Pfizer intends to vigorously defend itself. Pfizer has acted responsibly and appropriately at all times in connection with the development, approval, and marketing of Chantix.

• In Defense of Blackmail: Why Shouldn't Pfizer Dig Dirt on Crooked Pols?
• Pfizer's Board Need Look No Further Than Itself for Cause of Its Troubles