26,000 Seroquel Lawsuits and Counting

Washington, DENo fewer than 26,000 lawsuits against Seroquel manufacturer AstraZeneca are percolating through the legal system and awaiting due process, prompting Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University, to quip, "I wish there was a magic wand that could be waved to settle all Seroquel cases instantly. Such a wand does not exist."

In January Saltzburg served as mediator in court-appointed sessions aimed at arriving at a possible settlement.

According to the 2/4/10 edition of the News Journal of Washington, Delaware, AstraZeneca is preparing for its first jury trial over claims that Seroquel causes diabetes. Many of the lawsuits also allege that AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel as appropriate for uses not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Seroquel was originally approved to treat patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is AstraZeneca's second-biggest selling drug, next to Nexium, which is used to treat ulcers. Seroquel generated revenues of $4.9 billion in 2009.

Saltzburg told the News Journal that two days of talks failed to achieve a resolution. A judge in New Jersey has set a start date of February 16 for the first of thousands of potential Seroquel trials filed to go before a jury in the state of New Jersey.

AstraZeneca noted in SEC filings that it is facing in excess of 25,000 claims that Seroquel caused diabetes. That number represents an increase of 65 percent over the number of cases the manufacturer identified in a regulatory filing from January of last year.

The manufacturer also is looking at legal costs totaling $656 million to defend itself in the Seroquel cases. That's up 28 percent, or $144 million, from this same time last year.

In November, US District Judge Anne Conway in Florida, who is overseeing pre-trial proceedings in federal Seroquel litigation, ordered the company to meet with plaintiffs' lawyers and Saltzburg to discuss settlement.

AstraZeneca is vigorously defending itself against allegations that Seroquel caused plaintiffs' diabetes. A spokesperson for the manufacturer, Tony Jewell, e-mailed the newspaper to say that "the evidence, looked at fairly and fully, does not back up the allegations that Seroquel was responsible for the plaintiffs' alleged injuries."