GSK is sued in US over alleged link of paroxetine to birth defects

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3967

Published 12 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3967
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3967

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GSK is sued in US over alleged link of paroxetine to birth defects

Janice Hopkins Tanne

¹ New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is facing the first of about 600 US lawsuitsclaiming that its antidepressant paroxetine (marketed as Paxilin the United States and Seroxat in the United Kingdom) causedbirth defects in infants born to mothers who took the drug whilepregnant. The first case has gone to jury in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,where the company has locations in the city and its suburbs.The outcome of early trials often sets the trend for later cases.

In the Philadelphia case Michelle David claims that the drugcaused life threatening heart defects in her son Lyam Kilker,who has had heart surgery several times. He is now almost 4years old.

Lyam’s lawyer alleged in court that documents disclosedin the proceedings suggested that GSK had been aware in 1980that information from rat studies indicated that paroxetine"could be" a cause of birth defects but that the company haddecided . . . [Full text of this article]

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GlaxoSmithKline told to pay family $2.5m after jury finds paroxetine caused son’s heart defects: Janice Hopkins Tanne
BMJ 2009 339: b4266. [Extract] [Full Text]