Pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has made tentative deals with patients who took its Celebrex and Bextra pain killer drugs and then sued the company for damages, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal today.

The deals have been reached with 200 plaintiffs who have sued Pfizer after they suffered from heart attacks and strokes after taking the products, according to attorneys involved in the litigation, the Journal said

One lawyer stated he has been offered around $200,000 per client on average, to solve his Bextra cases and an average of $40,000 to $50,000 per client to solve the ones for Celebrex, the Journal noted.

Pfizer said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Pfizer is willing to pay up to $500 million to settle the 7,000 to 9,000 lawsuits that have been filed so far, according to pair of attorneys, the Journal said.

Bextra and Vioxx, which have been withdrawn from the market due to safety concerns, along with Celebrex, which is still being sold, belong to the Cox-2 inhibitor class of painkillers.

Pfizer has earned $611 million from Celebrex in the first quarter of 2008.

Shares of Pfizer dropped 0.10 percent to $20.61 a share in after-hours electronic trading of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

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