Synthroid
Plaintiff’s Claim v. Knoll Pharmaceutical Company et al.
Harvin Pitch was lead counsel in a class action brought against Knoll Pharmaceutical Company and Boots Pharmacies Inc. with respect to the marketing of Synthroid in Canada. The claim involved the alleged suppression in the U.S. of a study conducted for the manufacturer of Synthroid which was intended to provide that Synthroid was a superior drug to other drugs supplying a similar product for people with hypothyroidism. However when the study did not substantiate that claim and instead found that other drugs were just as good, Boots Pharmacies Inc. and then its successor, Knoll Pharmaceutical Company, suppressed the study, it was alleged, from 1990 to 1996. The study was then released after an article in The Wall Street Journal. A class action was brought in the U.S. against Boots and Knoll which was settled. A claim was brought in Toronto on behalf of residents of Canada, other than in Québéc and British Columbia, for damages for breach of the Competition Act claiming wrongful suppression of the study. The action was certified and a settlement agreement approved by Winkler J. on April 9, 2002. See Sutherland v. Boots Pharmaceutical Company [2002] O.J. No. 1361