Paxil And Babies

GlaxoSmithKline announced it expects legal charges of approximately $2.4 billion for the second quarter of 2010.  The reports are that the $2.4 billion legal bill includes charges related to product liability lawsuits over Paxil, mothers and babies. “The charge we have announced today reflects the company’s ongoing efforts to resolve certain longstanding legal cases,” according to its main corporate lawyer in a statement quoted in the New York Times. “This represents a substantial proportion of GSK’s outstanding litigation.”

GlaxoSmithKline settled more than a hundred Paxil birth defect lawsuits in June 2010.  The Fitzgerald Law Firm has cases alleging GSK deliberately chose against adequately warning physicians and expectant mothers about the risk of birth defects when those pregnant mothers took Paxil.  Those birth defects include persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborn babies (PPHN) and heart defects, including holes in the heart and malformations.

Many law firms claim to have success in Paxil cases but only two lawsuits have ever resulted in a verdict against GSK for a birth injury, or death from suicide. One of those two successful cases against GSK over its Paxil product resulted in a verdict in which Jim Fitzgerald was privileged to serve as trial co-counsel for the family.