TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Internal AstraZeneca reports and e-mails written by company officials show they knew a decade ago that their psychiatric drug Seroquel caused diabetes and major weight gain, plaintiffs' lawyers said Friday after releasing dozens of the previously sealed documents.
"They not only failed to warn about the risk of diabetes, but they marketed it as not having that risk," said Houston attorney Ed Blizzard, one of the lead attorneys representing roughly 15,000 plaintiffs suing the British drugmaker.
The plaintiffs claim Seroquel, approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, caused diabetes, weight gain and related health problems, from kidney failure and heart attacks to amputations and damage to the pancreas, which makes insulin.
AstraZeneca spokesman Tony Jewell said plaintiffs' lawyers are "mischaracterizing that we knew that it caused diabetes." He said it remains unresolved whether Seroquel causes diabetes, and that AstraZeneca PLC has shared all relevant and required data with the Food and Drug Administration, both before and after the FDA approved Seroquel as safe and effective in 1997.
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