AstraZeneca Facing 26,000 Lawsuits Over Seroquel (Update1)

AstraZeneca Facing 26,000 Lawsuits Over Seroquel (Update1)

By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc is facing as many as 26,000 lawsuits over its antipsychotic drug Seroquel as the drugmaker prepares for its first jury trial over claims the medicine causes diabetes, according to court filings.

Attorneys for AstraZeneca, the U.K.’s second-largest drugmaker, met with plaintiffs’ lawyers in court-ordered mediation sessions last month to discuss a possible settlement of the Seroquel cases, according to court filings. Consumers’ lawyers said they had about 26,000 cases in their inventories, Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University Law School professor who served as mediator, said in the filing.

“I wish there were a magic wand that could be waived to settle all Seroquel cases instantly,” Saltzburg said in the filing. “Such wand does not exist.”

AstraZeneca’s stock fell last week after the drugmaker’s sales forecast and stock-buyback plan disappointed some analysts and fourth-quarter profit missed estimates. The company plans to buy back as much as $1 billion of shares this year, officials said Jan. 28.

The company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week it faces more than 25,000 claims that Seroquel caused diabetes. That’s a 65 percent increase in cases over the number the company reported in a January 2009 regulatory filing. Many of the suits also claim AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel, approved for schizophrenic and bipolar patients, for unapproved uses.

New Jersey Trial

A New Jersey judge has set a Feb. 16 trial date for the first of thousands of Seroquel cases filed in that state to go before a jury, according to a December 2009 court filing. Seroquel, which generated sales of $4.9 billion last year, is AstraZeneca’s second-biggest seller after the ulcer treatment Nexium.

“The evidence, looked at fairly and fully, does not back up the allegations that Seroquel was responsible for the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries,” AstraZeneca spokesman Tony Jewell said in an e-mailed statement.

The case is In Re Seroquel Products Litigation, 06-MD- 01769, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Orlando).

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.

Last Updated: February 3, 2010 11:58 EST

via bloomberg.com

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