Wall Street banker
suing over Mirapex gambling addiction
Randolph
Simens, 55, a former Wall Street banker, is suing drugmakers
Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Pharmacia & Upjohn over
gambling addiction. Simens says that he took the drug "Mirapex"
during the period 2002-2007, which led to a gambling problem
resulting in losses of over $3 million at various casinos.
Mirapex is a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease, as well as
restless leg syndrome. Randolph Simens claims that he start
taking Mirapex in 2002, after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease and his recreational gambling habit "snowballed" into a
full gambling addiction, causing him to spend countless nights
at online and land casinos, raking up over $3 million in
gambling losses.
Medical studies first linked the drug to
compulsive behaviors, including gambling, back in 2005 and a
spokesperson for Pfizer said the company had not marketed
Mirapex since. But according to the lawsuit, the defendants
"had a duty to provide adequate warnings and instruction for
Mirapex, to use reasonable care to design a product that is not
reasonably dangerous to users, and to adequately test their
product." The lawsuit was filed in New York State Court on
Tuesday.
Published on
07/10/2008
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