AstraZeneca Settles Seroquel Claims For $520 Million

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Craig Cherry

According to the New York Times,  AstraZeneca  has agreed to settle two federal investigations and two whistle-blower lawsuits for a total of $520 million over the sale and marketing of its psychiatric drug Seroquel.  The names of the whistle-blowers and other details regarding the investigations remain under seal in federal court.

Due to aggressive marketing by AstraZeneca, Seroquel had been used for children and the elderly for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Seroquel had been the top selling antipsychotic drug in the United States, with sales exceeding $17 billion since 2004.

AstraZeneca has been served with approximately 14,444 product liability lawsuits over Seroquel.  Through discovery in some of those cases, Plaintiff's counsel Ed Blizzard says an internal email message from a company official  regarding Study 15 stated "a great 'smoke and mirrors' job"  had been done on a "buried" study in 1997, the year Seroquel was approved by the FDA.

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Toyota Hit With Temporary Restraining Order

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Craig Cherry

In what appears to be the first case in Texas to be filed against Toyota seeking to reopen previously settled product liability cases, Judge T. John Ward, who presides over the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, signed and entered a temporary restraining order against Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. and several in-house counsel for Toyota regarding document retention related to Toyota motor vehicles. 

The temporary restraining order arises out of a civil RICO complaint filed in Judge Ward's court by Raul Lopez, a plaintiff who previously settled a personal injury case with Toyota years ago.  Mr. Lopez filed a RICO complaint on September 25 seeking to reopen his case after Dimitrious Biller, a former in-house attorney for Toyota, filed a federal lawsuit in California alleging Toyota has illegally withheld and destroyed evidence in hundreds of rollover injury and death cases over  the past several years. 

The temporary restraining order issued by Judge Ward yesterday orders Toyota, and essentially anyone who works for or with Toyota, to:

  1. Issue litigation holds on all documents in any form pertaining to any make, model or year platform vehicle;
  2. Issue litigation holds on all documents in any form pertaining to any non-production vehicle evaluation pertaining to product liability or crashworthiness issues;
  3. Issue litigation holds on all documents in any form pertaining to research projects that involve issues related to product liability or crashworthiness issues;
  4. Issue litigation holds on all documents that are presently or will be subject to any type of document retention policy;
  5. Issue litigation holds on all documentation and all communications sent to outside Counsel, outside experts, or outside contractors.

Judge Ward also set a show cause hearing  for October 7, 2009, at 1:30 pm, for Toyota to show why the temporary restraining order should not be converted to a preliminary injunction.

The style of the case is Raul Lopez, et. al. v. Toyota Motor Corporation, et. al., Cause No. 2:09-CV-292.

 

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