By Michelle James
Diabetes treatment and research in West Virginia recently received a nearly $8 million boost thanks to a unique settlement arrangement that marked the end of an eight-year-old class action lawsuit.
In December 2007, Raleigh County Circuit Judge John Hutchison approved a $17.1 million settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed against Warner-Lambert Co. and Parke-Davis, whose diabetes drug Rezulin was found to have caused severe and sometimes fatal medical problems for those who took it.
Because a number of individuals who were eligible to receive damages did not step forward to claim their money, nearly $8 million of the settlement remained, leaving defense counsel Michael Farrell and plaintiff counsel Scott Segal with an opportunity to help the state’s two major universities in their efforts to fight against and better understand diabetes.
Two orders signed by Hutchison last Wednesday awarded $2.25 million to the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine Rural Health Program and $5.67 million to the West Virginia University Department of Pediatrics.
Marshall’s funds will be used to help its diabetes center promote better treatment of diabetes issues and add a new focus on diabetes and related disorders to its mobile medical center, which travels around the state performing cancer screenings in rural areas.
Additional funds will go into Marshall’s endocrinology fellowship.
Farrell, a Huntington lawyer who helped organize the Marshall end of the arrangement, said he believes the money will benefit everyone in the state.
“We (clients and attorneys) think the monies will be used for decades to come to help patients and to help train doctors, and we believe we’re going to have the best endocrinology program in the region,” he said, adding doctors throughout the state would have the opportunity to call the program at Marshall for help and advice.
On the WVU end, the money will be used in researching a possible link between obesity, diabetes and asthma in the state’s children.
Segal said he believes the research, which will be led by Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte, professor and chairman of WVU’s Department of Pediatrics, will be beneficial to future generations of West Virginians.
“Dr. Piedimonte is a world-renowned researcher and West Virginia has one of the worst childhood diabetes problems in our country” Segal said. “Dr. Piedimonte is interested in studying, on a wide population basis, the interaction of diabetes, obesity and asthma in children to better help the medical community to understand the problem and how to start tackling the problem.
“(The research) will arm Dr. Piedimonte with the type of data that will allow him to go to policymakers and say, ‘We can make a change in the lives of these children, and here’s how.’”
Hutchison commended the efforts of both Farrell and Segal.
“I believe the plan for the distribution is an outstanding example of cooperation between the two parties involved, and the distribution is absolutely in the best interest of the citizens of the state of West Virginia,” he said.
Segal said he was pleased to be part of a lawsuit with positive results for all.
“Lawsuits are very difficult and very stressful,” he said. “It’s just great at the end of a lawsuit when something so positive occurs.”
— E-mail: mjames@register-herald.com
