Seroquel Caused Diabetes, Claim More Than 25,000 Plaintiffs

Virginia (VA) Dangerous Drug Injury Lawyers
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Dangerous Drugs & Devices/Product Recalls

2/7/2010
Emily Mapp Brannon
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Seroquel Caused Diabetes, Claim More Than 25,000 Plaintiffs

A prominent warning on the Web site for the antidepressant and schizophrenia drug Seroquel XR states "High blood sugar and diabetes have been reported with Seroquel XR." Reading the medication's prescribing information reveals that diabetes and blood glucose spikes experienced by Seroquel users have sometimes proved fatal.

It seems logical, then, that Seroquel's maker, AstraZeneca, would acknowledge that its brand name version of the drug quetiapine had caused some serious injuries and deaths. After accepting responsibility, AstraZeneca should be willing to settle provable claims that particular patients did not receive adequate warnings about Seroquel's serious side effects or that patients received prescriptions for Seroquel because the company inappropriately marketed the drug.

This has not happened. According to a report in Business Week, AstraZeneca is currently requiring each of the more than 25,000 plaintiffs who have sued the company after allegedly being injured by the medication to go to court. Despite including warnings about Seroquel causing and worsening diabetes in prescribing information. AstraZeneca is taking the position that no plaintiffs had problems with blood sugar because they took Seroquel.

Ultimately, every one of the 25,000-plus cases will not be heard. Nor will plaintiffs or AstraZeneca probably win every case that does go to trial and results in a judgment. What will likely happen at some point is that plaintiffs will win enough cases that the company will settle the remaining outstanding claims. An extremely less-likely, but theoretically possible, outcome is that AstraZeneca will win enough cases that the remaining plaintiffs will withdraw their claims. The second result seems so unlikely because evidence that Seroquel causes potentially deadly diabetes and that Seroquel has been used inappropriately in large numbers of patients with the company's knowledge and encouragement is not really debatable.

The issues individual Seroquel lawsuits will decide is how much harm particular patients suffered as a result of taking Seroquel and what compensation is reasonable for each degree of harm found. Negotiations between AstraZeneca and plaintiffs' lawyers to work out these issues and reach a pretrial settlement have yielded no results, according to Business Week.

Every medication has some side effects, but sometimes those side effects outweigh any benefits for large numbers of patients. When that happen, patients injured by dangerous drugs have an undeniable right to receive compensation for their suffering. Drug manufacturers will often try to deny responsibility for the harm their products cause and keep lawsuits from coming to trial as long as possible. Those efforts usually just delay final judgments for or settlements with patients.

EJL

Labels: antidepressant AstraZeneca dangerous drug deaths diabetes doctors Emily Mapp Brannon injury Attorney lawsuits medication obesity off-label drug use prescription drug quetiapine fumarate safety side effects warning

About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a Virginia injury law firm whose attorneys focus on personal injury and accident law and have experience handling cases fo victims of dangerous drugs and prescription drug errors. Check out our dangerous drug information page to learn more about side effects and recalls. We have offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA, but we're ready to come to you anywhere in Virginia, including Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Portsmouth and Suffolk if you've been seriously hurt by someone else's carelessness.

Our firm has been recognized as one of the best injury law firms in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report since 2010. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been named to the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009 and have been recognized as the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Shapiro and Lewis were also named Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law since 2010. Fewer than 5 percent of practicing lawyers are chosen to receive this honor.

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2 Comments to "Seroquel Caused Diabetes, Claim More Than 25,000 Plaintiffs"

Does a kid have to be fat to be at risk for diabetes? my little brother has such a poor diet, and my parents are not doing anything to change it. I'm so sick of it.

Posted by types of diabetes on March 10, 2010 at 07:47 AM

These pranayam exercises will help control the diabetes and the side effects.Build up the timing gradually.If you feel tired or dizzy, stop and resume later(after about a minute).The benefits will be noticed in weeks as the sugar level.

Posted by Effects of diabetes on February 9, 2010 at 04:01 AM

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Seroquel Caused Diabetes, Claim More Than 25,000 Plaintiffs

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