Quoted from http://www.stltoday.com/business/article_c569f2c4-58a7-5432-a939-ff22e90583e5.html
Firm with Earth City unit is settling suits over drugs tied to suicides
BY JIM DOYLE
Posted: Saturday, October 30, 2010 12:05 am
ST. LOUIS • A month after its Earth City subsidiary pleaded guilty of illegally marketing antidepressants to children and adolescents, Forest Laboratories is now settling a string of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits from the parents of children who took the drugs Celexa and Lexapro.
Fifty-four lawsuits, mostly involving suicides and attempted suicides by teenagers in various parts of the country, accuse the New York-based pharmaceutical company of concealing a negative pediatric study on Celexa, duping physicians about the drug's clinical trials, and targeting children in aggressive promotions of Celexa and a sister drug, Lexapro.
Four of the cases were settled Friday, and two additional cases were settled in recent weeks.
A surge of related settlements, which could total millions of dollars, is expected in the months ahead as the pharmaceutical company attempts to move beyond the controversy surrounding its marketing of antidepressants to children.