Good news. Here’s what Bloomberg had to say about the verdict yesterday against GSK over the dangers of Paxil for pregnant mothers and their babies. We are gratified that Bloomberg also mentioned the Cheyenne, Wyoming trial in which we were privileged to serve as trial counsel. Now there have been two verdicts against GSK, the one in Cheyenne and yesterday’s.
“GlaxoSmithKline Plc must pay $2.5 million over claims that its Paxil antidepressant caused birth defects, a Pennsylvania jury concluded in the first of 600 such cases to come to trial.
Jurors in state court in Philadelphia deliberated about seven hours over two days before finding Glaxo failed to properly warn doctors and pregnant users of Paxil’s risk. The panel awarded $2.5 million in compensatory damages to the family of Lyam Kilker. The 3-year-old was born with heart defects his mother blamed on the drug.
It’s the first time a jury has considered claims that Glaxo, the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, knew Paxil caused birth defects and hid the risk to increase profits. The drug, approved for U.S. use in 1992, generated about $942 million in sales last year, or 2.1 percent of Glaxo’s total revenue”.
In the Kilker case, the jury found that Glaxo officials “negligently failed to warn” the doctor treating Lyam’s mother about Paxil’s risks and concluded the medicine was a “factual cause” of the child’s heart defects.
Juror Joe Mellon, who voted for Kilker, said Glaxo didn’t conduct adequate studies on Paxil. “There were a couple of what I thought were safety signals and what the plaintiffs presented as safety signals that they should have maybe looked into further,” Mellon said after the verdict was announced.”
“Glaxo is also fighting suits in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. over claims that Paxil, whose generic name is paroxetine, causes homicidal and suicidal behavior. The company settled some suicide claims, under undisclosed terms.”
“In 2001, a jury in Cheyenne, Wyoming, ordered Glaxo to pay $6.4 million to the relatives of a man who shot his family to death and then turned the gun on himself after taking Paxil. The case was settled while on appeal, according to Glaxo’s Mr. Colgan.”