NYTimes reports AstraZeneca settles all but 250 of 28,700 anti-psychotic Seroquel Lawsuits????
The New York Times & many other mainstream news outlets today are reporting that all but 250 of the estimated 29,000 seroquel civil law suits have been settled.
WAIT A COTTON PICKING MINUTE HERE!! SETTLED YOU SAY? Injured Parties will get the last word on whether this is settled or not!
Reports are estimating most of the injured party litigants will receive an offer of somewhere between 11,000 & 25,000 dollars, minus 40% of the gross amount to the lawyers, minus fees, minus Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement; which could work out to around three thousand dollars to some parties with life long health issues including diabetes & related conditions caused by the ingestion of Seroquel.
This is far from settled as the NYTimes & mainstream media has reported; in fact rumbling sounds of a settlement rejection could reach as high as 40% to 50 % of those seriously injured by AstraZeneca's Seroquel.
So AstraZeneca may want to hold on to their board room party hats before sending their billion dollar legal team off on an extended tropical vacation or wildly swinging from the got away with murder chandeliers. In fact, this litigation may go on for years with cases trickling out to juries across America. The good news for those that are willing to keep fighting forward; is both time and significant evidence continues to accumulate in their favor.
We can only surmise from these numerous reports by most of the mainstream media outlets, is that it matters not what those injured by Seroquel feel, think, believe, or what action they may take regarding this settlement offer by AstraZeneca.
Not a single report I can find even comes close to mentioning the fact that almost no victim of the drug Seroquel has even received a settlement packet to either accept or reject at this juncture. This is what the elitist call Justice in America; lawyers get together in secret backrooms ordered by politically tainted insider appointed judges to come up with deals that serve their own interest, and not the best interest of those they are supposed to represent.
In future post I will be highlighting each of these law firms that have sold out their clients with this horribly unfair offer & deal. I want others to know that when the next damaging drug comes along (and it will, because it pays off huge for big pharma to sell poison), these are not firms that can be trusted with representing injured parties best interest.
Along with AstraZeneca, who must eventually be held accountable for their crimes against the citizens of America and humanity; so shall these whole sale ambulance chaser legal mills that prey on the suffering of others for profit.
AstraZeneca in time may end up paying a very steep & heavy financial price for many years to come.....the unfortunate reality is that the truest sense, form, or measure of justice has already passed us by: thankfully many litigants with a strong sense of civic moral conscience & conviction have decided to not be victimized yet once again and do the right thing by boldly rejecting this insulting and ludicrous settlement offer to move forth against a looming gargantuan task of battling against this tidal wave of corporate tyranny and injustice.
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From the prescriptions blogs.@ the NYTIMES?
AstraZeneca Settles Most Seroquel Suits
By DUFF WILSONThe British drug maker AstraZeneca has settled in principle nearly all of the American product liability lawsuits over Seroquel, its blockbuster antipsychotic drug, the company said in a quarterly earnings report on Thursday.
All but 250 of the 28,700 cases have been settled, most with written agreements, AstraZeneca said in the securities filing. It had previously reported settling most of those cases, but the new filing showed how far the company has whittled away at the remaining product liability litigation. Last quarter, it had reported 2,600 outstanding cases.
Most of the plaintiffs argued that they had been misled about the risks of diabetes and weight gain caused by Seroquel, the company’s second-best-selling product with $5.3 billion in worldwide sales last year, behind the cholesterol drug Crestor.
In the filing on Thursday, AstraZeneca said it added $55 million last quarter to the previously reported $592 million set-aside, for a total of $647 million to settle the litigation.
“Is it a good move?” said Les Funtleyder, health care analyst for Miller Tabak. “Yes, anytime you can settle these suits, it’s good.”
The set-aside includes the $68.5 million that the drug maker agreed to pay in March to 37 states, settling charges that it had illegally marketed Seroquel.
AstraZeneca also had to pay $520 million last year to settle federal investigations into its marketing of Seroquel.
At that time, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, had accused the company of paying kickbacks to doctors while promoting the drug for unapproved uses by children, the elderly, veterans and prisoners.
AstraZeneca did not admit to any misconduct, while settling the federal case and signing a corporate integrity agreement, essentially putting it on probation with the government.
The company also said in the filing that its legal fees in Seroquel cases amounted to $743 million, partly covered by insurance. That figure has risen from $688 million estimated a year ago.
If the estimates hold, AstraZeneca will have paid a total of about $1.9 billion to defend and settle the personal injury cases and government investigations.
The figure represents less than five months of Seroquel sales.
That is far less than Eli Lilly paid to settle similar charges regarding its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Lilly paid more than $1.2 billion to settle lawsuits in 2007 and $1.4 billion to the government in 2009, including a criminal fine of $515 million.
At the time, that fine was the largest ever for a United States corporation. It has since eclipsed by the $1.3 billion criminal fine Pfizer paid as part of a $2.3 billion settlement of charges it had illegally marketed the painkiller Bextra and other drugs.
Drug makers have become the biggest targets of government antifraud investigations.
Legal discovery in the Seroquel cases has provided some of the most embarrassing or damaging disclosures over AstraZeneca’s past research and marketing practices, including a 1997 memo praising the company’s work to put a “positive spin” on a “cursed study” and highlighting one official who “has done a great ‘smoke-and-mirrors’ job!”
Another internal e-mail unsealed in court said AstraZeneca had “buried” unfavorable studies. A publications manager for the company wrote, “the larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data.”
All but 250 of the 28,700 cases have been settled, most with written agreements, AstraZeneca said in the securities filing. It had previously reported settling most of those cases, but the new filing showed how far the company has whittled away at the remaining product liability litigation. Last quarter, it had reported 2,600 outstanding cases.
Most of the plaintiffs argued that they had been misled about the risks of diabetes and weight gain caused by Seroquel, the company’s second-best-selling product with $5.3 billion in worldwide sales last year, behind the cholesterol drug Crestor.
In the filing on Thursday, AstraZeneca said it added $55 million last quarter to the previously reported $592 million set-aside, for a total of $647 million to settle the litigation.
“Is it a good move?” said Les Funtleyder, health care analyst for Miller Tabak. “Yes, anytime you can settle these suits, it’s good.”
The set-aside includes the $68.5 million that the drug maker agreed to pay in March to 37 states, settling charges that it had illegally marketed Seroquel.
AstraZeneca also had to pay $520 million last year to settle federal investigations into its marketing of Seroquel.
At that time, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, had accused the company of paying kickbacks to doctors while promoting the drug for unapproved uses by children, the elderly, veterans and prisoners.
AstraZeneca did not admit to any misconduct, while settling the federal case and signing a corporate integrity agreement, essentially putting it on probation with the government.
The company also said in the filing that its legal fees in Seroquel cases amounted to $743 million, partly covered by insurance. That figure has risen from $688 million estimated a year ago.
If the estimates hold, AstraZeneca will have paid a total of about $1.9 billion to defend and settle the personal injury cases and government investigations.
The figure represents less than five months of Seroquel sales.
That is far less than Eli Lilly paid to settle similar charges regarding its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Lilly paid more than $1.2 billion to settle lawsuits in 2007 and $1.4 billion to the government in 2009, including a criminal fine of $515 million.
At the time, that fine was the largest ever for a United States corporation. It has since eclipsed by the $1.3 billion criminal fine Pfizer paid as part of a $2.3 billion settlement of charges it had illegally marketed the painkiller Bextra and other drugs.
Drug makers have become the biggest targets of government antifraud investigations.
Legal discovery in the Seroquel cases has provided some of the most embarrassing or damaging disclosures over AstraZeneca’s past research and marketing practices, including a 1997 memo praising the company’s work to put a “positive spin” on a “cursed study” and highlighting one official who “has done a great ‘smoke-and-mirrors’ job!”
Another internal e-mail unsealed in court said AstraZeneca had “buried” unfavorable studies. A publications manager for the company wrote, “the larger issue is how we face the outside world when they begin to criticize us for suppressing data.”
