A jury decided AstraZeneca provided adequate warnings about side effects of Seroquel causing diabetes. The month-long trial in New Jersey has been carefully watched by 26,000 people with similar claims. The 7-1 ruling left unanswered whether the drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder contributed to the onset of diabetes. Attorneys for the Louisiana veteran who took Seroquel for 5 years sought to pit safety versus sales by using internal documents to show an awareness of weight gain accompanying the drug. According to an email from company spokesman Tony Jewell, "The heart of these cases are unproven claims that Seroquel causes diabetes," writes Bloomberg News. AstraZeneca is Britain's second largest pharmaceutical company, and sales of Seroquel reached $4.9 billion last year.
Meanwhile, Pharma Times reported that a British authority monitoring pharmaceutical advertising said the company breached ethical standards by failing to advertise correctly that weight gain was a side effect. Apparently AstraZeneca will not appeal this charge.
