AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals appears to be using more delay tactics in their billion dollar defense efforts to keep the vast majority of Seroquel damage suit trials from ever reaching a jury.
If you haven't noticed AstraZeneca has been in the news consistently for one sleazy practice after another. Now it appears that with a little influence in high places and buckets full of cash the American justice system is finally made in active proclamation that it is only designed to protect wealthy corporations with endless delays and frivolous motions in judges chambers. This while they continue profiteering at the tune of a estimated 5 billions dollars a year from a drug that has shown to damage and kill patients that ingest it.
If AstraZeneca or plaintiff legal firms are under any fantasy impression that injured plaintiffs are going to accept a insulting and trivial $11, 000 settlement for a life long adverse medical conditions caused by the Seroquel, they are having some serious delusional episodes and need some serious intervention in the form of a huge wake up call. Bloomberg News and Judge Conway might want to check with injured plaintiffs before making statements & continued rulings that delay justice and trials in these cases.
Let me put it out there as plain and simple as it can be said. The Supposed settlement being reported will be soundly rejected by the vast majority of injured plaintiffs in these cases. That means there is no settlement. Dealing and negotiating with evil criminal corporations like AstraZeneca is paramount to having a sit down, chat, and tea with the devil himself.
All these supposed well sourced news outlets might want to stop taking the meaningless "word" of AZ's PR spin mouthpiece Tony Jewell or trust anything AstraZeneca says when reporting erroneous settlement offers and figure totals which amount to little more than bargaining bait and propaganda.
If one was to just glance at AstraZeneca's dubious track record, they might conclude they are running their legal efforts much like they run their drug operations, with a bunch more misleading/deceptive marketing schemes and perpetual dangerous lies.
In reading this news below I would have to say something doesn't smell quite right around this litigation, and this isn't passing the gut check test using even the furthest stretches of one's most forgiving imagination.
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AstraZeneca Given More Time to Settle 6,000 Seroquel Lawsuits
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-01/astrazeneca-given-more-time-to-settle-6-000-seroquel-lawsuits.html
By Jef Feeley
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc was given more time to settle 6,000 lawsuits claiming its antipsychotic drug Seroquel causes diabetes after a group of judges decided not to send the cases back to their home courts for trials.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation yesterday vacated orders sending the cases, consolidated in federal court in Florida, in courts across the U.S. after a judge said the move might hinder settlement negotiations. London-based AstraZeneca has settled about two-thirds of the 26,000 Seroquel cases pending against it.
“A remand at this juncture would likely disrupt the settlement dialog,” U.S. District Judge Anne Conway, based in Orlando, Florida, said in an Aug. 30 order asking the judicial panel to forgo remands. Returning the cases could “stall negotiations altogether,” Conway said.
AstraZeneca officials said they would continue to work with a mediator to resolve the remaining lawsuits over Seroquel.
“We remain committed to a strong defense effort, but will continue to participate in the court-ordered mediation process,” Tony Jewell, a U.S. spokesman for the drugmaker, said in an interview yesterdayAstraZeneca, the U.K.’s second-biggest drugmaker, still faces at least 8,000 cases in both state and federal courts alleging Seroquel causes diabetes in some users. The drugmaker won the first jury trial over those claims in state court in New Jersey in March.
$11,000 Payouts
Seroquel, with sales of $4.9 billion last year, is the company’s second-biggest seller after the ulcer treatment Nexium. AstraZeneca trails only London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc among U.K. drug companies.
AstraZeneca officials said last month that they agreed to pay about $198 million to settle 17,500 suits over Seroquel. Those accords provide average payouts of about $11,000 for former users of the drug.
Having the 6,000 cases go back into the court-ordered mediation process won’t improve the chances they will settle at those prices, said Ken Bailey, a Houston-based lawyer who represents former Seroquel users in most of those suits.
“I’ll participate in the mediation process and either they will be settled or they won’t, but in my opinion, they won’t be settled” if AstraZeneca continues to offer only $11,000 a case, Bailey said.
Michael Kelly, a Wilmington, Delaware-based lawyer for AstraZeneca who serves as the drugmaker’s lead negotiator in the settlements, didn’t return a call for comment on the remand or settlement talks.
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Related reading & links:
The Seroquel story is one of deception for profit - AstraZeneca is committed to a strong defense effort to battle lawsuits for diabetes:Seroquel it's about money not your health - http://tinyurl.com/39v574r
Organized Pharmaceutical Corporate Crime - crimes including murder masked as medicine for profit - http://tinyurl.com/26kcjo3dougbremner in Video clip discussing the case of MA v Riley, psychotropic med (including high dose of Seroquel) related death of 4 year old. http://bit.ly/bQp7d4
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9 comments:
Nice to see one my most adoring and ardent readers/fans is back this morning. Now where oh is their little spies "V", where oh where could they be? St. Louis "V" central usually follows your visits here with a download frenzy. Those silly down home mid-west corporate folk must be really into scrapbooking...lol
IP Address 156.70.222.31 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region Delaware
City Wilmington
ISP Astra Zeneca
Returning Visits: lots and lots
Multiple visits spread over more than one day
Search Engine Phrase
Dr. Nasrallah Seroquel
Search Engine Name
Google
Search Engine Host
www.google.com
Host Name
IP Address 156.70.222.31 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region Delaware
City Wilmington
ISP Astra Zeneca
Returning Visits 27
Visit Length
Multiple visits spread over more than one day
Read it and weep AstraZeneca.
Could it be, whatever will be will be...it's just like the "V"
Referrer http://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=ny
Host Name 71-8-203-154.dhcp.stls.mo.charter.com
IP Address 71.8.203.154 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region Missouri
City Saint Louis
ISP Charter Communications
Multiple visits spread over more than one day
On a more Cheerful note, it's comforting to know others are reading this post like:
216.81.94.73 [Label IP Address]
Country United States
Region Virginia
City Arlington
ISP Department Of Homeland Security
You think these people could be a bit more opaque, particularly the DHS. It's not the terrorists that frighten me. It's the Keystone Cops running the security apparatus.
Here's hoping that you don't get party vanned. lol.
betasheep...a little roughing up, character assassination, maybe a small fame up, and some water board time is a piece of cake and a damned good time compared to this dark age reign of corporate racketeering going on...They don't know who or where to start in holding the criminals accountable since they all have their hands in the cookie jar..
Stan wrote:
"...Dealing and negotiating with evil criminal corporations like AstraZeneca is paramount to having a sit down, chat, and tea with the devil himself..."
Well, having sold my soul to him a long time ago, I can confirm that the Devil is a charming, urbane character, who doesn't need to lie his head off, in order to protect his piddling little interests, thereby marking an important difference between himself and AZ!
Matt
i have some idea why AZN is getting their wish by fed judge conway to remand cases back to individual states and beat many of those griffters from having to even settle teh nominal $11,000 advised initially by some egg head law college perfessor that it should arbitrate
ok to the point
AZN had legal basis for obfuscating medical facts all along because claimants had health issues - i didnt
never once have i registered over the lab ranges for high cholesteral high blood pressure, blood sugar you name it
all was normal before taking the drug
once i found out i was nearly having strokes my dr found my blood sugar 380 - three weeks after stopping seroquel i was back at 120 and even lower afterwards
so while my case is iron clad medical wise it blows the others shit away because many cannot now or ever prove they did not have symptoms and that being off seroquel will make them better
sounds warped logic but they can say i al better and still as legal bullshit lawyers would twist it also to say i dont deserve shit for my troubles either but i still have other damage to nerve tissue and things
who ever knows these outcomes where legal bloossuckers thrive on others demise
Dear Anom:
I believe Judge Conway is doing quite the opposite in this case, she has given AZ what they wanted in stalling these cases endlessly in meaningless settlement/mediation talks so they don't ever makes it before a jury where AZ is bound to start losing a significant number of cases with devastating financial consequences .
The $11,000 dollar figure estimated per case is ludicrous for these injuries incurred by AZ's blatant disregard for public safety and greed mongering (Note: many will receive no offer or far less then the $11,000 as reported from their Attorney's: "as per insider non-disclosed information").
The $520 million payoff to the DOJ and our government was little more than hush money so they didn't get taken down on serious criminal charges related to their wrong doing. This would have also laid the ground work for significant retribution in civil litigation against a convicted felony corporation.
That's what having the largest lobby in Wash DC, being a major campaign contributor to almost everyone in both major political party, and having a open door to the White House ear can do in a deeply corrupted system.
Now they are using the same tactics with Conway and litigant law firms.
"No one should accept this AZ offer"
This criminal corporation has profiteered off the suffering they directly caused to others for far to long. It's time for justice to be properly served, and if justice is not served to citizen in this corrupted legal and court system, then we need to demand and make justice happen by all other means possible.
This situation in AZ's eyes is just part of running a dirty and profitable corporate enterprise (business as usual); Yet to those injured by their marketed poisons it's about criminals getting away with, and actually being rewarded for virtual murder and mayhem.
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