Pfizer, Widow Reach Confidential Settlement On Eve of Trial Over Smoking Cessation Drug

TAMPA, Fla.—Pfizer Inc. and a widow who alleged the smoking cessation drug Chantix caused her husband’s suicide have settled what would have been the first bellwether suit to go to trial in the federal multidistrict litigation, an Oct. 17 dismissal order by the MDL court says (Chantix (Varenicline) Products Liability Litigation, In re).

U.S. District Court Judge Inge P. Johnson of the Northern District of Alabama said in the order that the court had been informed by the parties that the case brought by plaintiff Judy Whitely against Pfizer had been “amicably resolved” and that the suit was ...