Zoloft Manufacturer Requests Consolidation

The manufacturer of popular antidepressant Zoloft is facing a number of lawsuits regarding the product from patients who have experienced adverse side effects after taking the drug. Now, drug maker Pfizer is requesting that 59 lawsuits relating to Zoloft birth defects, one of the more commonly cited Zoloft side effects in these lawsuits, be consolidated into a multidistrict litigation case. The request was filed in a motion with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on January 18th, 2012.

Pfizer requests location for Zoloft MDL

Pfizer has requested that Zoloft multidistrict litigation, if it is approved, take place in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, but also suggested the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi and the Northern District of Ohio as other possible locations for Zoloft multidistrict litigation. 

A multidistrict litigation case would allow one federal judge to handle more than one Zoloft lawsuit, especially if the lawsuits dealt with similar circumstances or side effects. This would help plaintiffs and defendants reach consensuses about settlements and other matters in a more efficient way, as pretrial processes would be combined in similar cases so that litigation could move more quickly through the legal system. Pfizer is arguing that consolidating cases into a multidistrict litigation lawsuit would be beneficial to plaintiffs and defendants alike. 

More Zoloft Birth Defect Lawsuits Filed in New York

A long list of Zoloft birth defects is beginning to add up in recent Zoloft lawsuits filed against the antidepressant’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Inc. The plaintiffs in the cases allege that the use of Zoloft led to various birth defects, including heart defects, clubfoot, cleft lip, craniosynostosis, anal atresia and cleft lip. Six plaintiffs recently had their cases added to Judge Carol E. Huff of the New York County Supreme Court, on January 17, 2012. These plaintiffs all state that if the warnings on the drug had been made clearer, showing a clearer link to the Zoloft birth defects, then they never would have taken the risk of using the drug while pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant.

Zoloft was introduced by Pfizer in 1991 for the treatment of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. By 2007 there were nearly 30 million prescriptions, making it the most prescribed antidepressant in the United States. Zoloft belongs to a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The Zoloft litigation is currently spread out among at least a dozen different U.S. District Judges, which could result in conflicting scheduling orders. However, the vast majority of the complaints over Zoloft are currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where at least 48 of lawsuits are pending. The number of lawsuits over Zoloft is expected to continue to grow over the coming years as parents and young adults discover that birth defects or malformations may have been caused by the popular antidepressant.

According to the lawsuits that have been filed, mothers used Zoloft only because they believed it was safe to take the medication during pregnancy. These suits also allege that Pfizer knew of the dangers of Zoloft to the developing fetus, but failed to alert consumers to those risks, in fact, Zoloft lawyers are arguing that Pfizer marketed Zoloft as the safest anti-depressant on the market for pregnant mothers, despite it knowing the dangers. Zoloft lawsuit alleges strict product liability, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranties, misrepresentation by omission, negligent misrepresentation, fraud by concealment, fraud and misrepresentation, and violation of consumer protection laws.