Glaxo Spending $1 Billion to Settle Paxil Birth Defect Suits
Glaxo is using a large chunk of money it set aside to pay legal costs to settle about 800 Paxil birth defect lawsuits. According to a Bloomberg report, about $1 billion of its $2.4 billion legal expense budget will go to the settlements.
Glaxo will pay about $1.2 million to each of the families whose children were born with birth defects following their mothers’ use of Paxil during pregnancy.
Claire Brough, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline did confirm to Reuters that additional cases are pending and that three such cases are scheduled for trial later this year in Philadelphia.
The details of the settlements are confidential. According to Brough, Glaxo decided to settle the Paxil lawsuits “in order to avoid the costs, burdens and uncertainties of ongoing litigation.”
