AstraZeneca Wins First Seroquel Jury Trial

A New Jersey state court jury delivered a defense verdict for AstraZeneca, rejecting plaintiff's claims that Seroquel caused his alleged injuries. This is a significant win for AstraZeneca, as thousands of state and federal suits have been filed alleging Seroquel, a psychiatric drug on the market since 1997, caused plaintiffs to develop diabetes. The previous nine cases prepared for trial have been dismissed by both federal and state court judges, and approximately 2,600 additional cases have been abandoned by the plaintiffs' lawyers themselves. "The reality," said Arthur E. Brown, Partner in Kaye Scholer’s Litigation Department and AstraZeneca’s co-lead national coordinating counsel, “is that given the number of voluntary dismissals by the plaintiffs, judicial dismissals on scientific grounds, and now the first verdict, AstraZeneca believes these cases have no merit.” Mike Brock and Diane Sullivan tried the case for AstraZeneca.