Woman’s Generic Paxil Claim to Go to Court This Month

A woman in Chicago has filed a lawsuit claiming that her husband’s suicide was triggered by the generic version of Paxil.

According to NBC News, Stewart Dolin took six doses of Paxil, as prescribed, in the days before he took his life in the summer of 2010. His family said he suffered from anxiety.

“If you ask anyone who knew him, he was laid back, high on life, so there was this unbelievable disconnect between how he lived his life: a beautiful man, a beautiful life. The tragedy and violence of his death… it was, it just didn’t make sense,” Stewart’s wife, Wendy Dolin, told NBC News.

In her lawsuit, Wendy claims that the warning on the bottle of generic Paxil prescribed to Stewart was inadequate because it did not contain language about the risk of increased suicide for adults over the age of 24. She also claims that Paxil maker GlaxoSmithKline has known of the increased risk and suppressed warnings about it for years.

Currently, generic drug makers are not permitted to change the labels produced by brand name makers. They have to duplicate the language word for word. Therefore, when a generic drug harms a victim, one legal option is to say that the warning on the drug was insufficient, even though it was not produced by the company that distributed the medication.

In her lawsuit, scheduled to be in court this month, Wendy claims that GlaxoSmithKline is responsible for all label warnings involving Paxil.

How Do I File A Generic Drug Lawsuit?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been contemplating a proposal that would require generic drug makers to update the prescribing information on their products if they become aware of new safety information. Since generic drugs makeup about 80 percent of prescriptions filled in the United States today, the proposed change would hold generic manufacturers to the same level of accountability as name brand manufacturers.

If you believe a defective drug has injured you, contact our experienced pharmaceutical drug and device attorneys. Our patient advocates represent victims who have experienced adverse events from dangerous drugs, seeking justice and compensation for those wronged.

Zoll, Kranz & Borgess, LLC – Defective Medical Drug and Device Lawyers