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A US jury found a psychiatric drug did not trigger diabetes in a veteran of the Vietnam war, British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has said.
In the first trial of thousands of cases over whether Seroquel caused the condition, 61-year-old Ted Baker from Louisiana said he took the drug from 2001 to 2006 for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
He was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004, which he blamed on the medication. But AstraZeneca said after 15 days of testimony and seven hours of deliberations, the jury found in its favour.
“The jury found… that AstraZeneca’s Seroquel label provided prescribing doctors adequate warning with respect to the risk of diabetes,” Arthur Brown, outside counsel for AstraZeneca, told The Associated Press in an interview.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the atypical antipsychotic Seroquel for treating bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, but it widely used for other psychiatric conditions and insomnia.
It carries several serious warnings about side effects, such as a risk of developing cholesterol problems, diabetes complications, high blood sugar, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.
Copyright Press Association 2010
AstraZeneca
