Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-01/astrazeneca-given-more-time-to-settle-6-000-seroquel-lawsuits.htm
AstraZeneca Given More Time to Settle 6,000 Seroquel Lawsuits
September 01, 2010, 12:04 AM EDTBy Jef Feeley
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc was given more time to settle 6,000 lawsuits claiming its antipsychotic drug Seroquel causes diabetes after a group of judges decided not to send the cases back to their home courts for trials.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation yesterday vacated orders sending the cases, consolidated in federal court in Florida, in courts across the U.S. after a judge said the move might hinder settlement negotiations. London-based AstraZeneca has settled about two-thirds of the 26,000 Seroquel cases pending against it.
“A remand at this juncture would likely disrupt the settlement dialog,” U.S. District Judge Anne Conway, based in Orlando, Florida, said in an Aug. 30 order asking the judicial panel to forgo remands. Returning the cases could “stall negotiations altogether,” Conway said.
AstraZeneca officials said they would continue to work with a mediator to resolve the remaining lawsuits over Seroquel.
“We remain committed to a strong defense effort, but will continue to participate in the court-ordered mediation process,” Tony Jewell, a U.S. spokesman for the drugmaker, said in an interview yesterday.
AstraZeneca, the U.K.’s second-biggest drugmaker, still faces at least 8,000 cases in both state and federal courts alleging Seroquel causes diabetes in some users. The drugmaker won the first jury trial over those claims in state court in New Jersey in March.