Judge allows Paxil suicide lawsuit to proceed
A Pennsylvania judge has issued a ruling that will allow a wrongful death Paxil lawsuit to proceed in U.S. district court against GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of the drug. Paxil attorneys for GSK had argued unsuccessfully that the Paxil lawsuit filed by Jon R. Hoppe should be dismissed.
In September 2002, Hoppe’s wife committed suicide after being prescribed Paxil to treat depression. In his Paxil lawsuit, he alleges that far from treating her condition, Paxil actually worsened his wife’s depression and caused her to commit suicide.
Paxil lawyers for GSK maintained that the statute of limitations had expired for Hoppe to file a Paxil lawsuit, and that his case should be dismissed. The judge rejected these arguments, saying that Hoppe should be allowed extra time for discovery because the company had known of the link between Paxil and suicide since the 1990s.
Internal documents from GSK show that the company knew as early as 1997 that suicide could be a potential Paxil side effect. The company was forced to add a warning to the drug after many Paxil suicides were reported following its release.
As information about the risk of Paxil side effects has become more widely known, the number of Paxil lawsuits filed around the country has increased steadily. In addition to the link between Paxil and suicide, the drug has been linked to cases of congenital heart defects and other birth defects among women who took Paxil during pregnancy.