Lilly Settles Prozac Lawsuit
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/3/004678-4923-092.html
Terms of the deal not disclosed; new litigation in Georgia is targeting
metabolization issue.
By Jeff Swiatek November 30, 2002
A two-year-old Prozac negligence lawsuit, set for trial Tuesday, has been
settled out of court by defendant Eli Lilly and Co. and the Pennsylvania
plaintiffs.
The case was brought by Diane and Melvin Cassidy, of Monroeville, who in July
2000 picketed outside Lilly's corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, handing
out fliers proclaiming, "Lilly, how many people are maimed or dead on your
drug today?"
The Cassidys' lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, charged that
Diane Cassidy's doctor prescribed the antidepressant Prozac to her for weight
loss and that the drug caused suicidal thoughts that led her to slash her
wrists and overdose on a painkiller. She suffered intracranial bleeding from
the painkiller, which left her paralyzed on one side and mentally impaired,
according to the lawsuit, which sought $4.84 million in tangible damages.
The Cassidys were represented by Houston trial lawyer Andy Vickery, who has
negotiated settlements of several Prozac cases against Lilly.
Terms of the settlement, reached this week, were not disclosed.
The Indianapolis drugmaker said in a statement that it "made a business
decision to settle . . . for factors completely unrelated to the safety and
efficacy of Prozac. Such factors included the extensive time demands that
litigation would have placed upon our scientists, keeping them away from their
primary objective of discovering lifesaving medicines. In no way was our
decision to settle in any way motivated by concerns over the safety and
efficacy of Prozac."
The settlement comes the same week that a fresh Prozac lawsuit was filed
against Lilly, in U.S. District Court in Georgia. It raises a new charge in
the more than decade long litigation over Prozac: that Lilly has failed to
publicize research showing some people are "poor metabolizers of Prozac" and a
test can reveal if a patient might be affected.
The Georgia product-liability and wrongful-death suit, in which Vickery is
assisting the plaintiff, was brought by William H. Shell, the widower of
LaVerne M. Shell. She shot herself to death at age 63 in November 2000, 11
days after starting on a prescription of Prozac to treat migraine headaches.
The lawsuit charges that a human enzyme dubbed CYP2D6 normally metabolizes or
breaks down Prozac and similar drugs in the body, but fails to do so in a
minority of people. In their bodies, the active ingredient in Prozac builds up
to high levels, putting them at risk of violence and suicide, the lawsuit
says.
"Lilly is negligent in failing to make this information public, to convey it
to doctors, or otherwise to take reasonable measures to implement appropriate
patient screening techniques," the lawsuit says.
Lilly spokesman Blair Austin said that company officials hadn't seen the
lawsuit and couldn't comment on the new charge.
The metabolization issue is gaining currency among some activists who
publicize side effects from the Prozac class of antidepressants and other
drugs.
Self-employed businessman Jim Harper of Glendale, Calif., who runs a Web site
called Prozactruth.com, said he hopes to soon offer a DNA test through his
site that can tell if a person is a poor metabolizer of Prozac and related
drugs.
"I should not have to be the one" to publicize the test, Harper said Friday.
"I'd rather be doing other things on my nights and weekends." But drug
companies and doctors aren't doing enough to warn users of serious side
effects from antidepressants, said Harper, who noted he receives hundreds of
e-mails a week from people who read his Web site.
Harper said he hopes to arrange to sell the test for about $245 through
Genelex Corp. of Redmond, Wash., a direct-to-consumer DNA testing firm.
Last Updated on
02/20/2005
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