Lexapro Birth Defect Legal News Articles & Interviews

New York, NY The maker of the popular antidepressant Lexapro lost millions in sales when the drug’s patent expired in early March of 2012. Lexapro brought in $13.8 billion for Forest Laboratories in just one decade - that’s a whole lot of depressed people, including pregnant women, some of whom gave birth to babies with birth defects.

Washington, DC As we prepare to head into the ninth year since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first released its safety advisory with regard to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and their use by pregnant women, pundits will be watching the legal horizon for SSRI birth defect lawsuits scheduled to get underway in 2015. As of October there were about 200 lawsuits alleging SSRI and Lexapro birth defects in multidistrict litigation in Cole County Circuit Court Missouri.

Newark, NJ It will soon be a year since Michigan resident Chandra Shuck launched her Lexapro birth defects lawsuit against Forest Laboratories Inc. (Forest) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck). It’s been a lot longer since Shuck held her infant daughter in her arms. The little girl died in the third week of April 2005 after enduring four open heart surgeries in an attempt to correct heart defects. The infant survived just two weeks.

New York, NY Lia Grainger faces a dilemma shared by many women of child-bearing age who are also taking Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) for depression: how do you stop taking a needed antidepressant in order to avoid birth defects, in order to avoid the potential for newborn birth defects, while still maintaining your equilibrium?

Harrisonburg, VA A Lexapro side effects lawsuit that ended in the granting of summary judgment in favor of the defendant may have dismissed or disproved any claims by the plaintiff for failure to warn. What the decision didn’t do is disprove or cast doubt on the risk for suicide amongst patients prescribed the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI).

Boston, MA A Lexapro lawsuit arguing Forest Pharmaceuticals misled patients about the risk of Lexapro side effects and Celexa side effects has been granted class-action status. The lawsuit alleges that Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc, maker of Lexapro and Celexa, covered up findings suggesting the antidepressants were not effective in children. Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been filed against Forest Pharmaceuticals alleging Lexapro caused fatal birth defects in a baby who died two weeks after her birth.

Hope, ME Dear Mom. It’s not every day your daughter writes you a letter. Especially when you would expect to see me crying because I scraped my knee or catching me before the contents of my runny nose gets all over my hand-knitted sweater. Or when I’m home visiting from university with a mound of laundry in tow.

Washington, DC Lexapro, an antidepressant within the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) class, has two distinct personalities. For the patient in need of medication to quell anxiety or combat depression, Lexapro has been found to instill debilitating fatigue. And for an expectant mother on Lexapro for depression, the consequences to the developing fetus can result in devastating newborn birth defects.

Cole County, MO While not particularly active in the headlines of late, Lexapro birth defects is an issue that has nonetheless kept percolating in the shadows, and is poised to make a return to the public conscience with the start of the consolidated Lexapro/Celexa Products Liability Litigation trial in May of next year.

Boston, MA While experts agree that attempting a thorough clinical trial into SSRI antidepressants on pregnant women is ethically questionable, researchers continue to search for answers to a long-debated question: are depression patients who become pregnant better off without their antidepressants in an attempt to avoid the possibility of Lexapro birth defects?