Baycol blamed in death of Henderson man

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 9:36 a.m.

When Gerald Marston showed up at Wal-Mart for a job interview in September 2000, the store manager was sure the Henderson man made a mistake on his application.

You've got the wrong year here, the manager said. You put your birth date as 1929.

Marston, fit and vibrant, had a tough time convincing anyone he was 71, his family recalled.

"He was active, healthy, strong," said Marston's daughter Debra Lewis. "He didn't look anywhere near his age, or act it."

Four months after that interview, Marston died from complications related to rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscle tissue breaks down and overwhelms the body with toxic proteins.

The retired clothing factory manager was killed, his family's attorney alleges, by a controversial cholesterol drug that has since been pulled from the market.

Lawyers Thursday filed suit in District Court against the drug's manufacturer and distributor and the doctors who prescribed it. The plaintiffs are Marston's family and four other Nevadans who say they became gravely ill after using Baycol. The suit seeks damages in excess of $10,000.

The trade name for cerivastatin, Baycol, in August was voluntarily recalled by its manufacturer, the German company Bayer AG. Since 2000, 31 people taking Baycol have died from the severe form of muscle breakdown, a rare side effect associated with many cholesterol-lowering drugs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

A spokesman for Bayer's American division, headquartered in Philadelphia, said Thursday that the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

"Unfortunately, the older people that have typically been prescribed this drug were most vulnerable to its devastating effects," said attorney Peter Wetherall, who is representing the five Nevada plaintiffs. "My clients trusted in the fact that Baycol would improve their health, and were woefully misled."

Thousands of individual Baycol suits are in the works across the country, and class-action filings are pending in state and federal courts in California, Pennsylvania and Alabama.

Numerous websites have also sprung up, as personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys seek some of the more than 700,000 Americans who have been prescribed the drug.

Bayer knew the dangers of Baycol as early as 1998, when the first related death was reported, said Wetherall of the law firm White & Meany.

Symptoms of the debilitating muscle breakdown include weakness, fever, dark urine and muscle pain.

J.C. Taylor, also a plaintiff in the Baycol suit, said Thursday he has constant pain and a burning sensation in his thighs. Taylor. 76, took Baycol for just 23 days in May.

"He never complained before, now he hurts all the time," said Taylor's wife, Yvonne. "It's difficult to see him like this."

Baycol was introduced in 1997 and prescribed to treat coronary disease.

Cerivastatin has had the highest rate of serious side effects of all six drugs in the "statin" class, according to the FDA. In about a third of 31 deaths linked to Baycol, patients were also taking gemfibrozil, another cholesterol drug.