In just the last month, plaintiffs have filed more than 350 products-liability cases in Delaware state court against AstraZeneca over its Seroquel schizophrenia drug, a surge exceeding the total number of cases filed there in the last two years.

The National Law Journal reports that plaintiffs lawyers contend that there is nothing behind the uptake - they point out that Delaware is AstraZeneca’s home state and the cases would have been filed eventually anyway. But a defense observer believes plaintiffs lawyers may be trying to force an early settlement of the Delaware cases that would influence the settlement of the rest of the litigation - and avoid the federal multidistrict litigation in Tampa - because Delaware is on a fast track for trial and discovery.

The lawyers are posturing nicely. Mike Kelly, managing partner of McCarter & English’s Wilmington office, who leads AstraZeneca’s Seroquel defense team in Delaware state court, says the drugmaker won’t settle. “In boxing terms, we will go toe to toe - no ‘rope a dope’ here. We stand behind Seroquel, which is a great product that has helped a lot of people.”

But Paul Pennock of Weitz & Luxenberg in New York, who is co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the federal Seroquel MDL, lead counsel in New Jersey and also involved in the Delaware litigation, calls AstraZeneca’s approach “foolish.” “We’re going to take scorched earth back at them.”
If the surge in Delaware is part of a strategy, its aim is to spread out large numbers of cases to give plaintiffs “as many different pressure points on AstraZeneca as we can obtain,” he says.

The litigation arose from a label change ordered by the FDA four years ago, indicating patients are at a heightened risk of contracting diabetes. No link has been proven, but plaintiffs who took the drug before that date claim injury and a lack of adequate warnings.

Pennock notes that Lilly settled litigation over Zyprexa and agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle 28,500 state and federal claims while denying liability. That litigation has been notable thanks to a controversy over public disclosure of thousands of pages of documents indicating Lilly failed to disclose side effects and improperly marketed its drug to docs.

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Hat tip to Furious Seasons.[tags]AstraZeneca, Seroquel[/tags]