Remand of Seroquel Lawsuits For Trial Vacated To Continue Settlement Talks

A panel of judges has decided to give AstraZeneca Plc. more time to settle as many Seroquel lawsuits as possible, vacating a prior order that would have sent thousands of cases back to the federal district court where they were originally filed for trial. 

In an order issued Tuesday by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict litigation, it was decided that all lawsuits over Seroquel would remain centralized as part of an MDL (multidistrict litigation) in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida for continued pretrial settlement negotiations.

U.S. District Judge Anne Conway, who has presided over the MDL since it was established in July 2006, asked the Panel to vacate her prior order to remand the cases for individual Seroquel trials. Judge Conway indicated that remanding the cases at this time would likely disrupt the settlement dialop and could “stall negotiations altogether.”

AstraZeneca has already agreed to pay almost $200 million to settle about 17,500 personal injury lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim that the company failed to warn that the side effects of Seroquel could cause substantial weight gain and significantly increased the risk of contracting diabetes. The company had faced a total of about 22,500 Seroquel lawsuits. Most of the remaining cases that have not yet been settled are part of the MDL. 

Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate) is an atypical-antipsychotic that is a top selling drug for AstraZeneca, generating nearly $5 billion a year in sales. Originally approved by the FDA in 1997 for the treatment of schizophrenia, it has been frequently prescribed off-label for uses that were not approved as safe and effective at the time, such as anxiety, obsessive dementia, compulsive disorders and autism.

In May, Judge Conway determined that the pretrial work in the MDL was complete, and issued a Final Pretrial Order and Suggestion of Remand. At that time, no Seroquel settlements had been reached in any of the cases. Plaintiffs pushed for the Seroquel lawsuits to be remanded, arguing that AstraZeneca was maintaining that they would not settle the cases and was engaging in a legal defense strategy of delaying the cases.

Faced with the prospect of defending thousands of individual trials in courts throughout the United States, settlement negotiations picked up this summer. In July it was reported that AstraZeneca agreed to settle Seroquel lawsuits filed by about 200 people. Within two weeks, the number of reported settlements reached 17,500 cases, concluding the lion’s share of the lawsuits that were pending. The average Seroquel settlement has been about $11,000 per claim.

This week’s ruling allows the possibility that AstraZeneca to continue discussions in the remaining cases, while they remain part of a coordinated action subject to continuing court-ordered mediation.