AstraZeneca Starts To Settle Seroquel Lawsuits
16 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 22nd, 2010 // 10:06 am
Another day, another large settlement. Rather than ring up tabs for expensive lawyers and confront the possibility of bad publicity indefinitely, drugmakers are choosing to settle gobs of product-liability lawsuits with big settlements. Such moves, of course, appease anxious investors and allow senior execs to focus on the important stuff, such as their compensation packages developing new meds.
Over the past few weeks, GlaxoSmithKline has been practically racing to resolve Avandia and Paxil lawsuits (see here and here). And Eli Lilly has done the same with its Zyprexa antipsychotic. Now, AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $2 million to settle more than 200 lawsuits charging its Seroquel antipsychotic causes diabetes, marking the first time the drugmaker agreed to settle such claims.
There are an estimated 26,000 Seroquel in state and federal courts, although many are consolidated in multi-district litigation in a federal court in Florida, where a judge recently urged mediation. An AstraZeneca spokesman tells us the drugmaker “continues to participate in good faith in the mediation process, with multiple mediation sessions scheduled throughout the summer.” However, he declined to comment on the settlement, which was reported by Bloomberg News.
The deal comes after AstraZeneca agreed to pay $520 million to settle civil charges for off-label marketing of Seroquel, but won some court battles. In April, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the first product liability lawsuit alleging Seroquel caused a patient’s diabetes. A three-judge federal panel ruled that a federal court in Florida correctly dismissed a case brought by a woman because her doctor didn’t qualify as an expert under federal court rules (see here). And in March, a New Jersey state court jury decided against a 61-year-old Vietnam War vet.
The settlement may indicates some trial lawyers are questioning the strength of their Seroquel claims, according to Carl Tobias, a professor at University of Richmond Law School who teaches classes on mass-tort law. “It also may be a reflection of the difficulty the plaintiffs are having in getting these cases to trial,” he tells Bloomberg. “The plaintiffs have to be asking themselves after the New Jersey trial whether they can win one of these.”
MsPiggy
“Such moves, of course, appease anxious investors and allow senior execs to focus on the important stuff, such as their compensation packages developing new meds”
…….lol
pharmagossip
http://www.pmcpa.org.uk/files/2294,2296%20and%202297%207%20July_1.pdf
I understand AZ were facing the possibility of some ex-employees testifying!!
HC
As a patient who was treated with typical and atypical a/p’s for off-label uses such as PMS, anxiety and insomnia, I believe these medications are very dangerous. I was initially given Zyprexa to treat PMS and became extremely fatigued and began to gain weight rapidly, which was diagnosed as depression. Wellbutrin and Depakote did not ‘cure’ the depression, so I was given fluphenazine and Artane. I gained more weight, grew excess facial hair (have to shave my face daily) and developed tardive dyskinesia and tardive dystonia. I was shifted to Risperdal and the TD symptoms subsided somewhat, but I began to lactate (not pregnant), gained more weight, and my middle-aged breasts grew 5 cup size’s over the course of a few years.
No physician’s recognized these symptoms as being drug-induced. I was given off-label Aricept to treat the perceived cognitive decline from the atypical’s. I developed tolerance to the benzodiazepines and other sleep meds, Ambien, so I was given chloryl hydrate to help me sleep.
Still, only one physician spoke out about the excessive mediations or their off-label uses. Since it was just one person speaking out, and his claims were disputed by everyone else, I went with the majority opinion and continued my treatment. My condition stumped the experts at leading teaching hospitals. I kept seeking treatment and eventually was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. I received years of high-dose antibiotics, IV and orals, and continued to decline with the increase in medical care.
The off-label use of these antipsychotics, and other psychiatric drugs, must stop. They cause terrible psychological and physical damage, which is oftentimes permanent.
Justice in MI
I hope worthy claims will be honored. In many ways, the AZ/Seroquel story sheds the clearest light into marketing strategies and attitudes in the early 2000s. That’s because we at least see a degree of ethical ambivalence in the documents that have come to light, and it is easier to follow the process that led to right and wrong choices.
Stephany
AstraZeneca sure does like reading
http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2010/07/astrazenecas-seroquel-wonder-drug-its.html
Especially about Blenkinsopp….hmmm.
$10,000 for a life time of permanent illness, that was drug-induced from using Seroquel, sold by a drug company that knew it was going to damage/kill people with the drug, still for sale and approved by the useless FDA…all someone needs to do next is take Avandia for the diabetes induced by Seroquel and be one foot in the grave….but! $10K will pay for the funeral!
Give me a break! This is a smack in the face, not a settlement.
*I am not in litigation with AstraZeneca.
My Take
AZ is trying to get off easy - just like GSK recently. This is nothing to pay for their alleged sins. They messed up a lot of patients and should be taken to the woodshed big-time. heavy personal fines and jail time for the top execs who allowed this to happen!! Greedy slimes!!
Former Big Pharma MD
Very corrupt company with multiple skeletons in their closets! No doubt they terminated the employees who had the audacity to ask questions about their tactics and their lack of ethics. It’s the big pharma way and it’s rampant throughout the industry.
AZ Escapee
Run by ethically-challenged top execs!!
John Pelszynski
Astrazenica is liable and thats the way the British are.. I landed in the hospital because of this drug. Caused rapid heart rate , weight gain, Diabetes and other health issues and they know it. Its the Brits getting back at the USA for the July 4th ,1776 we have. Independence from British rule…
John Pelszynski
Come on AZ give us our just compensation. I am still suffering from this dangerous drug. I took this drug and ended up in the E.R. with a-fib. My heart rate was stabilized and i was released from the ER came home and took the med again so i could relax and sleep and my heart went into A-fib again, and back to the ER i went to get the normal heart rate back. This Seroquel caused it for sure. John F. Pelszynski
Stephany
http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2010/07/astrazeneca-settles-nearly-4000.html
4000 cases settled
JUDY
I TO AM A PRODUCT OF ASTRA ZENICA’S GREED. I MAY NEVER LIVE TO SEE MY CASE SETTLED BUT AT LEAST I WILL HAVE THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING MY DAY IN COURT. I HOPE MY LAWYERS FIGHT THEM UNTIL THE VERY END BECAUSE MY CASE GOES BACK TO 2003 AND THEY HAVE DID EVERYTHING TO GET IT THROWN OUT OF COURT. FOLKS YOU ARE RIGHT, THIS LITTLE SETTLEMENT IS A SLAP IN THE FACE. WHAT FOLKS DON’T REALIZE, $11,000 IS BEFORE THE LAWYERS FEE’S WHICH FOR ME IS 40% WHICH LEAVES $6,600.00 WHICH DOESN’T EVEN COVER MY MEDICATION FOR ONE YEAR. MUCH LESS BURY ME!
kay
i too am a victim of seroquel.i began taking it in 2003 and had diabetes by2005.my life is miserable now i have no energy,confidence or desire to do te things i used to be able to do.im hoping 10,000 is not what the settlement will be because that is very unfair to the people thatare sufferi ng and will continue to suffer
chris
I took Seoquel for 2 years and stopped about 4 years ago. I have been taking a few diferent meds but nothing seems to work, I just keep comming down with ilnesses. I have been in and out of work. During the 2 years i was taking Seroquel I was vommiting around 9:30 every morning. It took me two years to figure out what my doctor should have been able to tell me right away.I,who was previously quite on the ball and organized found myself disoriented and confused. I tried to work again last fall but suffer from what I just found out today is called Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome. I would like compensation because it appearsthat I can no longer work but I know that the American and Canadian politicians are in bed with the big businesses. They don’t care about North Americans, Quite the reverse. They are industrially gutting our countries and are stealing from us, changing laws so that big business can do what they want, the politicians are getting filthy rich too. Watch Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, watch them all and see what your government has planned for you and do something about it before its too late for the western civilization. Drug companies are not going to pay us common folk but they have payed the government millions in claims. Well what about the people who are harmed. If us commoners were the judges these crooks would be in jail. They are not though because they are doing the government’s bidding, population control! they are not going to stop until we have been all but extinguished. So, if you want compensation from these big companies your going to have to do what Tunisia and Egypt are doing right now, Feb. 2011 and that is a fact!
MsPiggy
Came across a blog that appears to be throwing a monkey wrench into all the reported settlement is a done proclamations….interesting to say the least…more information that has been hidden from the public…
http://seroquellawsuitblog.blogspot.com/
Sheila Smith
I have been taking serequel for years and now diagnoses with diabetes i have records and prescrition list do I have a claim