Zoloft may cause birth defects when a woman takes it during pregnancy. If you or a loved one has given birth to a child with a birth defect and the mother took Zoloft during pregnancy, you may be entitled to financial compensation.
Zoloft is prescribed for many purposes. Sertraline is used to treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (bothersome thoughts that won’t go away and the need to perform certain actions over and over), panic attacks (sudden, unexpected attacks of extreme fear and worry about these attacks), posttraumatic stress disorder and others. Regardless of the reason of prescription, women who take this drug may experience a greater than average risk of infant child birth defects, including but not limited to heart defects, cleft palate, cleft lip, skeletal deformations and more. If your child experienced such a horrific side effect, please call our team of Zoloft lawyers today for a free case evaluation on how we can help.
Lawsuits Filed Allege Profits Over Safety
Zoloft Birth Defect Injury Lawsuits Accuse Pfizer of Ignoring Side Effects for Profits
Pfizer faces more than 300 Zoloft birth defect injury lawsuits alleging that it ignored information on drug side effects and continued to market the SSRI antidepressant despite reports of serious birth defect injuries. The drug was introduced in 1991 and there was no independent scrutiny on its safety until 1999 when one of the two Columbine High School massacre preceptors was found to be on the drug for a long time. The FDA received a spate of reports between 2002 and 2006 alleging birth deformities, suicidal tendencies, and cardiovascular problems in newly born babies caused by Zoloft side effects.
In 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine published a research finding disclosing serious Zoloft side effects for pregnant women and their children. This led to filing of Zoloft birth defect injuries lawsuits and more studies highlighting life-threatening risks. The number of Zoloft birth defect lawsuits zoomed in 2011 and 2012 as a large number of users came forward to sue Pfizer following disclosure of drug adverse effects.
Plaintiffs of Zoloft Birth Defect Injuries Lawsuits
Zoloft birth defect injuries lawsuits filed against Pfizer mostly concentrate on seeking damages citing product liability, breach of trust, fraud, and negligence. In most of the lawsuits, parents or mothers of children born with deformities have been named as plaintiffs. They claim that the manufacturer failed to disclose safety issues associated with the drug leading to its consumption by expectant mothers and birth of children with congenital defects.
A number of Zoloft birth defect injuries lawsuits have also been filed by children born with birth defects due to the drug side effects. Their claim against Pfizer focuses on the point that failure of the drug maker to divulge the side effects, restricting its use by pregnant women, is responsible for the birth deformities of the plaintiffs. As more such children living with malformations are turning adults, the number of birth defect lawsuits is bound to rise in the coming years.
Zoloft Birth Defect Injury Lawsuits
In October 2011, an Ohio couple filed a birth defect lawsuit in a Cuyahoga county court blaming Pfizer and Ohio-based pharmaceutical supplier Cardinal Health for the death of their newly born son. The mother took Zoloft during pregnancy and her son was born with a neural tube defect, also called anencephaly. The newly born was without most part of his brain. The Zoloft lawsuit claimed there was no pregnancy-related anencephaly warning from the manufacturer and this resulted in the deformities and death of the child. A similar lawsuit filed in a New York court by a couple from Missouri within days of the former claimed that Zoloft side defects led to death of their newly born baby with heart defects.
The parents of eight children with congenital birth defects filed a lawsuit in the St. Clair County Circuit Court in November 2011 seeking damages from Pfizer over Zoloft birth defect injuries. They claimed that use of Zoloft by mothers during pregnancy was responsible for deformities in children and the drug maker was responsible for it as the drug contained no warning on birth defects in newly born babies.
A 20-year-old woman born with Zoloft birth defect injuries filed lawsuits in December 2011 alleging that though Pfizer was aware of the drug side effects, it did not inform consumers about the same. The lawsuit was filed in a St. Clair County by Angela Rife. She has a cleft palate and cleft lip attributed to Zoloft use by her mother during pregnancy. A week later (January 6th, 2012), another 20-year-man from Texas filed a similar birth defect injury lawsuit in an Eastern Missouri federal court. He had congenital club feet that required him to undergo multiple surgeries.
In February 2012, a group of mothers initiated a Zoloft class action against Pfizer holding the antidepressant drug responsible for birth deformities in children born to them. The lawsuit alleged that the manufacturer did not carry out adequate research to establish safety of the drug and it misled the consumers on Zoloft birth defect injuries.
A 21 year-old woman from Massachusetts sued Pfizer in June 2012 blaming it for her atrial septal birth defects. The plaintiff claimed that her mother took Zoloft during pregnancy and its side effects caused congenital heart defect in her. According to the lawsuit, Pfizer failed to adequately inform the plaintiff’s mother or doctor about Zoloft birth defect injury side effects.
In September 2012, a federal lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania couple complained that Zoloft side effects resulted in the birth of their daughter with heart defects and clubfeet. The mother used the antidepressant during pregnancy, being unaware of its side effects, which resulted in malformations in the newly born child.
MDL Consolidation
About 245 federal Zoloft birth defect lawsuits have been filed across the United States. Over 70 lawsuits are also awaiting trial in different state courts. In April 2012, the federal MDL panel centralized all Zoloft lawsuits at the court of Pennsylvania Eastern District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe. As the number of lawsuits continues to increase, the judge outlined Preliminary Discovery Plan and the procedure to be followed in the deciding the trial dates on October 17.
The Problem
Our firm is offering free nationwide case evaluations to families whose children were diagnosed with medical conditions at birth or shortly therafter when the mother ingested Zoloft during pregnancy. Specific birth defects include cardiac malformations (ASD, VSD, Left Hypoplastic Heart Syndrome, coarctation of the aorta, Tricuspid or Pulmonary Atresia, Pulmonary Stenosis, transposition of the great vessels or any other heart defect), neural tube defect, craniosynostosis, cleft lip, cleft palate, skeletal deformations, and club foot.
About Zoloft
Our team of attorneys are currently reviewing potential Zoloft® lawsuits involving women who took these drugs during early pregnancy and whose children suffered adverse side effects, including heart defects and cleft lip/palate, among with others.
Manufactured by Pfizer, Inc., Zoloft® is generically known as sertraline hydrochloride and is a drug prescribed to treat major depression in adults, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic and social anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder in both adults and children. Zoloft is classified as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug, meaning that it selectively affects serotonin. Serotonin is one of many chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters, which pass messages between nerve cells, and has been linked in various studiesto an increased risk of birth defects.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially placed SSRI antidepressants, including Zoloft, in its pregnancy Category C. This pregnancy category means that animal reproduction studies have shown an adverse effect on the fetus, but there have not yet been adequate and well-controlled studies in humans. Pregnancy categories measure the teratogenic effects a drug has on a fetus. Teratogenic means that a drug or other substance is capable of interfering with the development of a fetus, so there could be serious risks to the unborn baby of a woman taking Zoloft while pregnant.
Birth defects or conditions that may be associated with the use of Zoloft include:
- Abdominal wall defects (infant omphalocele)
- Anal atresia (complete or partial closure of the anus)
- Cleft lip and cleft palate
- Clubfoot (one or both feet turn downward and inward)
- Heart (cardiac) defects
- Skull defect (craniosynostosis)
Zoloft was approved by the FDA and introduced into the market in 1991. Prior to 2002, the drug was approved only for use in adults ages 18 and over. In 2002, the FDA approved Zoloft to treat severe obsessive compulsive disorder in children ages six and older.
The FDA issued a Public Health Advisory on Dec. 8, 2005, warning that use of certain antidepressants during the first trimester of pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of birth defects. The advisory was based on U.S. and Swedish studies showing that exposure to certain antidepressants increased the risk of heart defects, including atrial and ventrical septal defects, conditions in which the wall between the right and left sides of the heart is not completely developed.
Citing a study by Christina Chambers of the University of California, San Diego, that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Canada issued a strong warning in March 2006 to pregnant women or women who were trying to become pregnant that antidepressant drugs like Zoloft could potentially pose serious risks to unborn or even nursing babies.
A 2007 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a “significant association” between Zoloft and septal defects. A septal defect is a congenital defect that affects the structures of the heart. Septal defects can lead to the improper circulation of blood, making the heart work overtime. An atrial septal defect (ASD) is a hole in the wall between the heart’s two upper chambers. A hole in the wall between the two lower chambers is called a ventricular septal defect (VSD). Septal defects can be life threatening. According to the study, mothers who take Zoloft during pregnancy may double the risk of having an baby born with septal defects.
In another study published in the March 2010 issue of Pediatrics, researchers found a potential association between exposure to antidepressants in late pregnancy and a delay in normal motor development skills at six and 19 months of age. The same researchers, in a 2009 study published by British Medical Journal, found that women who were pregnant and taking certain antidepressants during the first trimester had an increased risk of giving birth to babies having various heart defects.
A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Montreal and published online on May 31, 2010, in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests that women who take antidepressants like Zoloft during the first trimester of pregnancy are significantly more likely to suffer a miscarriage than women who do not take antidepressants.
The Archive of General Psychiatry published a report in July of 2011 linking SSRI antidepressants such as Zoloft to a potentially increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in babies born to mothers who took these drugs during the first trimester of pregnancy. Performed by researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California, the population-based, case-control study compared a group of 298 children having varying degrees of autism and their mothers to another group of 1,507 randomly selected children and their mothers. Nearly 70 children from each group were exposed to antidepressants in the same class as Zoloft, and the researchers found a possible connection between mothers who took these drugs within a year before delivery and an increased the risk of their babies being born with ASDs. The highest risk was found to be among those whose mothers took these drugs during the first trimester.
For a Free Case Evaluation:
TOLL FREE: 1-800-632-1404
EMAIL: click here
FILL OUT THIS FORM:
NOTE: Our team of attorneys will review potential cases for all fifty states, including Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin and Wyoming.