Zoloft Lawsuits

A number of lawsuits and a class-action suit were filed against Pfizer, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Zoloft, alleging that the medication caused birth defects, that information was withheld from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that patients were misled into buying the drug. Many of the lawsuits were dismissed or withdrawn, with judges holding that the plaintiffs failed to prove that Zoloft caused the birth defects. However, many have also been successful.

Many patients taking Zoloft while pregnant have filed lawsuits claiming that they were injured as a result of taking Pfizer’s drug. Specifically, they sued for birth defects they claim were caused by the drug, namely respiratory defects, heart defects, abdominal defects, skull defects, cleft palate, neural defects, autism, spina bifida, and club feet.

Litigation is properly filed against Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft.

Zoloft Litigation

Zoloft was approved by the FDA in 1991. Over the years, Pfizer has been subject to hundreds of lawsuits claiming that the drug was potentially dangerous to unborn children, and that it was ineffective as a treatment for depression.

The rise in lawsuits — with more than 700 federal cases listed — led to multidistrict litigation (MDL) in 2012. MDL involves consolidating cases with similar legal issues to one court, where a judge familiar with the technical details of the case can rule on the them. This was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. By 2017, however, all MDL cases were either dismissed or withdrawn.

In 2013, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in California alleging that Zoloft was ineffective in treating depression. However, the lawsuit was dismissed in 2014.

Similarly, Pfizer has won all of the court battles in state courts, where it was ruled that Pfizer was not legally liable for the birth defects in babies whose mothers had taken the medication. In 2017, a West Virginia judge dismissed two cases against Pfizer, finding that the manufacturer had not withheld information from the FDA.