US jury finds in favor of AstraZeneca in Seroquel product liability case; Clinigen takes over Foscavir

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca says that a jury in a New Jersey state court in the USA ruled in favor of the company by rejecting a Louisiana plaintiff's claims that its antipsychotic drug Seroquel (quetiapine) had caused his alleged injuries, ie, diabetes. Seroquel is the company's second-biggest selling drug, generating revenues of some $4.9 billion globally last year.

The case, Baker versus AstraZeneca, was the first product liability case to go to trial. 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' attorneys themselves, the company noted.

Jurors decided seven to one that AstraZeneca's warnings on the Seroquel label were adequate to alert users to the drug's diabetes risks.