Pfizer Settles Celebrex Lawsuit

Weeks before a scheduled trial, Pfizer and Brigham Young University have settled a six-year-old lawsuit brought by the university and Daniel L. Simmons, a BYU chemistry professor, over the cyclooxygenase-2, or COX-2, inhibitor that is the active ingredient in Pfizer’s Celebrex, the blockbuster painkiller. Although the terms were not made public, Pfizer noted a $450 million charge in connection with the settlement in its first-quarter earnings report. The university is reported to have sought 15% royalties on sales of Celebrex to date, or close to $10 billion, but a jury could have awarded much more in punitive damages and interest. The suit contended that Simmons discovered the COX-2 enzyme and in 1991 brought the discovery to Monsanto’s Searle drug unit, which Pfizer later acquired. It claimed that BYU and Monsanto entered a research agreement to develop a COX-2 inhibitor for inflammation under the direction of Simmons. BYU contended that the ...