Woman can sue pharma firm over steroid

The High Court has cleared the way for a woman who claims that she was left with permanent health problems after using a steroid produced by Pfizer to sue the pharmaceutical giant for damages.

Lorna Savage is also suing doctors who prescribed her the steroid, which she took to treat a rash over a two- year period in the late 1990s, sold under the trade name Deltacortril. She claims she was never warned about the possible side-effects of using the steroid.

Ms Savage, aged 43, from Cobh, Co Cork, claims she developed a serious medical condition, known as avascular necrosis, from using Deltacortril, to treat the rash, which was caused by an inflammation of her blood vessels.

Avascular necrosis kills and causes bone tissue to collapse due to lack of a sufficient blood supply. As a result of developing the condition, she claims, she has been left in severe pain and required several operations.

Within four years of being diagnosed with the condition, both her knees and her hip have had to be replaced.

She was left wheelchair- bound and is confined to her home. She requires morphine and finds it very difficult to sleep.

The steroid was initially prescribed to her to 1997 when she was aged 26.

She has brought a High Court action seeking damages for alleged negligence against Pfizer Ireland Ltd and Pfizer, who manufactured and marketed the steroid.

She is also suing the estate of her former GP, Michael Madigan, who died in 1999; consultant doctor MG Molloy, whom she claims prescribed her the steroid; and the Southern Health Board, which she also claims was negligent and in breach of its duty of care towards her.

Ms Savage’s claims are denied.

In a pre-trial motion, lawyers for Pfizer asked the High Court to strike out the claim on the grounds there had been an inordinate and inexcusable delay by Ms Savage in prosecuting the action. Her lawyers opposed the motion, and argued that the case should be allowed to proceed to trial.

Yesterday, at the High Court, Mr Justice George Birmingham found in favour of Ms Savage and dismissed the application to strike out her action. The judge said that while the delay had been inordinate, it was not inexcusable.

Given the complex nature of the evidence put before the court, he said the “balance of justice lay in allowing Ms Savage’s case to proceed” to a full hearing before the High Court.

The case will be listed later this year.

The court heard that, in 1997, Ms Savage was diagnosed with vasculitis, which damages blood vessels.

In June 1997, she was prescribed the steroid Prednisolone, by Dr Madigan and Cork University Hospital-based Dr Molloy, who, she says, were treating her for vasculitis.

The steroid is manufactured and marketed by the Pfizer defendants under the trade name Deltacortril. Ms Savage claims that, between June 1997 and late 1999, she took the steroid on a daily basis in varying amounts.

In her action, she claims the Pfizer defendants failed to provide proper or adequate warning on packaging or in literature accompanying the steroid that continued use could result in avascular necrosis. She also claims they failed to provide her with any warning about the side-effects.