Pfizer's Neurontin: Epilepsy meds have never been this sexy

If the story of Pfizer (PFE)'s Neurontin epilepsy and anti-seizure drug doesn't read like a Hollywood script for the next George Clooney movie, I don't know what does. From shady company practices to lawsuits to a mystery donation to a media battle between lawyers and Pfizer's CEO to a former CIA agent allegedly getting his hands dirty in the name of Big Pharma.

Neurontin's saga began over a decade ago, but in 2004, when Warner-Lambert (which Pfizer acquired in 2000) paid a $430 million fine for promoting it off-label as a painkiller, many assumed Pfizer's own headache over. They were wrong. It's 2009 and just recently, on July 27, the first of 1,200 cases relating to Neurontin began.