The number of lawsuits filed against AstraZeneca over their antipsychotic drug, Seroquel, has now topped 10,000. More lawsuits are expected to be filed in 2009 as patients who had been taking Zyprexa, a similar drug made by Eli Lilly, were switched to Seroquel – but are only now experiencing the drug’s side effects.
Product liability lawsuits increasing
Legal experts say that product liability lawsuits over Seroquel are increasing – as well as the number of people being injured by the drug. According to a recent article in Bloomberg News, www.bloomberg.com, over 15,000 patients have been injured by the drug, which has been linked to diabetes and obesity. Several of the lawsuits have been consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL) in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Other state court cases are pending in Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey and New York and four state Attorney Generals in Arkansas, Montana, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have sued the manufacturer over Medicaid benefits. However, many are saying that the value of these cases may be a drop in the bucket for the pharmaceutical giant due to the astronomical sales of Seroquel.
Seroquel sales reached $4.5B in 2008
Seroquel’s popularity increased dramatically after Eli Lilly came under fire by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and consumer groups in 2006 for downplaying the serious health risks of Zyprexa, such as an increased risk of diabetes, links to obesity and an increase in blood sugar levels for the 10 years it had been on the market. The company settled between 20,000 – 30,000 lawsuits against it for $500,000 million in 2007, pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of illegally marketing Zyprexa for off-label uses and agreed to pay a whopping $1.4 billion. Due to the controversy over Zyprexa, many patients were switched to AstraZeneca’s Seroquel – whose sales of $4.5 billion in 2008 have now surpassed Zyprexa’s sales.
Eli Lilly wasn’t the only company to get in trouble over questionable marketing practices of its antipsychotic drugs. In 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. agreed to pay $515 million to settle an investigation over its marketing practices for its antipsychotic drug, Abilify. Now, it’s AstraZeneca who’s in the hot seat over similar practices.
Did AstraZeneca bury clinical studies?
That’s what’s being reported by many news agencies. The company has been accused of burying the results of at least three important clinical trials. That information was discovered during the litigation process through an internal email by John Tumas, an AstraZeneca publications manager, which read, “The larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data…”
The FDA, which required AstraZeneca and other drug companies that produce similar products to warn doctors and patients of the drugs’ dangers in 2003, has said that it will again review the safety and effectiveness of Seroquel in April 2009 as part of AstraZeneca’s request to expand the use of the drug.
The list of potential, and published, serious side effects linked to Seroquel use is extensive. To read more about those side effects, see AstraZeneca’s website at http://www.seroquelxr.com/. If you’ve been injured due to Seroquel, contact an experienced product liability attorney to discuss your situation and evaluate your options. Consultations are free, without obligation and are strictly confidential.