Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-22/astrazeneca-said-to-pay-2-million-in-first-settlements-of-seroquel-suits.html
AstraZeneca Said to Pay $2 Million to Settle Lawsuits Over Seroquel Drug
By Jef Feeley - Jul 22, 2010
AstraZeneca Plc is said to have agreed to pay $2 million to settle more than 200 cases over its drug Seroquel. Photographer: JB Reed/Bloomberg
AstraZeneca Plc agreed to pay $2 million to settle more than 200 cases over its antipsychotic drug Seroquel in the first resolution of lawsuits alleging the medicine causes diabetes, people familiar with the accords said.
The settlement, which provides an average payout of more than $10,000 per case, came as the result of a U.S. court-ordered mediation involving 26,000 cases filed against London-based AstraZeneca over Seroquel, the people said.
“It should come as no surprise to investors and we’ve seen Eli Lilly settle on the very same issue with their competitor product, Zyprexa,” Gbola Amusa, an analyst at UBS AG, said yesterday in an interview. “The amount of the settlement implies a very low liability, much lower than the $1 billion to $2 billion range we expected a couple years ago.”
AstraZeneca’s decision to begin settling Seroquel claims comes as the U.K.’s second-largest drugmaker’s London shares surged to a three-year high last month after a judge upheld a patent on the company’s Crestor cholesterol pill. U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan in Delaware concluded June 30 the patent on Crestor’s active ingredient is valid and enforceable until 2016.
AstraZeneca officials declined to comment on the settlement of the 200 Seroquel cases or the mediation ordered by a federal judge in Florida who was overseeing all federal-court litigation over the antipsychotic drug.
