Hundreds of Seroquel Suits Facing Obstacles; Injured Parties May Never Get Day in Court

Patients who say they developed diabetes or another injury from taking the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel are facing an increasingly bumpy legal road to financial recovery. Hundreds of the roughly 17,000 personal-injury suits now filed against the maker of Seroquel are being threatened with dismissal by judges saying plaintiffs are not able to establish a legal link between their injuries and Seroquel.

The result is that hundreds, if not thousands, of injured patients may never be able to recover financial compensation for their medical bills, pain and suffering, lost income, and other damages.

Seroquel Suits Dismissed

One Seroquel lawsuit was tossed out of a Delaware state court in May. Judge Joseph R. Slights granted a preliminary motion filed by drug maker AstraZeneca PLC challenging the testimony of the plaintiff’s medical expert. The dismissal averted a trial on the suits, which was set to begin this month. Following that ruling, another Delaware plaintiff agreed to drop a lawsuit seeking Seroquel damages.

In January 2009, a U.S federal court judge in Florida dismissed lawsuits brought by two former Seroquel users who alleged the drug cause them to develop diabetes, weight gain, and other serious health problems. U.S. District Court Judge Anne Conway ruled that the plaintiffs had committed a procedural glitch by not properly preparing their suits for trial in February 2009.

The judge did, however, provide a glimmer of hope for Seroquel users by ruling that injured parties may argue in court that Seroquel contributed to their development of diabetes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have argued that AstraZeneca knew as early as 2000 that Seroquel could cause diabetes but failed to warn patients or physicians.

Seroquel belongs to a newer class of antipsychotic drugs along with Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa and Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal. Scientific studies have shown that the drugs may cause diabetes and in 2003, the Food and Drug Administration required AstraZeneca and the other drug makers to warn doctors and users about the severe health risks associated with the class of drugs.

However, legal challenges to Seroquel are having a tough time finding traction.

Judge Slights indicated that with lawsuits against AstraZeneca being dismissed on evidentiary and procedural grounds, the time may have come to take a close look at whether Seroquel litigation is a good use of the court’s limited resources.

“The court is left to wonder what is to become of its docket of more than 700 Seroquel cases,” Slights wrote in his dismissal ruling. “Trial groups have been formed well into the future and the parties are expending significant resources to prepare for these trials. The court is expending resources too. Under these circumstances, it is appropriate to wonder aloud.”

The judge indicated that the failure to prove a causal link between Seroquel and diabetes could sink many more lawsuits against AstraZeneca.

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