AstraZeneca Wins Trial on Seroquel Diabetes Claim (Update2)
March 18, 2010, 11:33 AM EDT(Adds details on company’s internal reorganization starting in seventh paragraph.)
By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc officials properly warned a Vietnam veteran’s doctors about the diabetes risk posed by its Seroquel antipsychotic drug, a jury ruled in the first case over the medicine to go to trial.
The state court panel in New Brunswick, New Jersey, deliberated a total of six hours over two days before finding the company’s warnings to Ted Baker’s doctors absolved AstraZeneca of responsibility for his injuries. Baker, 61, took Seroquel for lingering effects of post-traumatic stress syndrome caused by his military service in Vietnam. His was the first of about 26,000 claims over the drug to be considered by jurors.
“The jury determined in its verdict that the information in the Seroquel label provided prescribing doctors an adequate warning with respect to diabetes,” Arthur Brown, one of AstraZeneca’s lawyers, said in an interview after the verdict was announced.
Lawyers for Baker argued that AstraZeneca mishandled the medicine, ignoring or downplaying its links to diabetes and weight gain. The U.K.’s second-largest drugmaker said it warned of the drug’s risks and marketed it properly. Baker’s disease stemmed from his lifestyle and diet, the company said.
Paul Pennock, one of Baker’s lawyers, said the Louisiana resident was disappointed with the decision. He said other former Seroquel users will continue to press their claims about the drug’s diabetes risk.
Multiple Jurisdictions
“There are numerous cases that will be tried in multiple jurisdictions,” he said in an interview after the verdict. “We’ll continue to take this issue to jury after jury as many times as we have to until AstraZeneca takes responsibility for this drug.”
AstraZeneca officials said earlier this month the London- based company will end research and development efforts on psychiatric medications at its U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, as part of a reorganization.
Company executives plan to eliminate 11 percent of the drugmaker’s workforce by the end of this year as part of a $2 billion restructuring, the cost of the savings program from now to 2013. The cuts would include 550 jobs in Wilmington.
Second-Biggest Seller
Seroquel, with sales of $4.9 billion last year, is the company’s second-biggest seller after the ulcer treatment Nexium. AstraZeneca trails only London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc among U.K. drug companies.
Jurors decided 7-1 today that AstraZeneca’s warnings on Seroquel’s label were adequate to alert users to the drug’s diabetes risks. That decision mean the panel, which included a lawyer, didn’t answer questions about whether the drug contributed to Baker developing diabetes and how much in damages Baker deserved.
During the four-week trial, Baker’s lawyers sought to persuade jurors AstraZeneca officials resisted researchers’ calls to toughen the descriptions of side effects in Seroquel safety documents to protect sales.
They also presented evidence they said proved scientists were aware that Seroquel could contribute to the development of diabetes in some users.
“The heart of these cases are unproven claims that Seroquel causes diabetes,” Tony Jewell, an AstraZeneca spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.
“In case after case, jurors, judges and even plaintiffs’ lawyers themselves have found that plaintiffs simply cannot show through any accepted scientific method that AstraZeneca is responsible for their alleged injuries,” Jewell said.
AstraZeneca rose 29.5 pence, or 1 percent, to 2925 pence in London trading at 10:32 a.m. New York time. The company’s American depositary receipts, each representing one ordinary share, rose 10 cents to $44.78 in New York Stock Market composite trading.
The case is Baker v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, MID L 1099 07 MT, Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Middlesex County (New Brunswick).
--Editors: Glenn Holdcraft, Charles Carter.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware, at jfeeley@bloomberg.net; Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
