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On Friday, the parties in the pediatric Celexa/Lexapro class action lawsuit agreed to a settlement worth between $7.7 and $10.4 million. Plaintiffs had accused Forest Pharmaceuticals and Forest Laboratories of illegally promoting the drugs Celexa and Lexapro for use by children.
The plaintiffs alleged in their class action lawsuit that clinical trials of Celexa and Lexapro showed that the antidepressants “are no more effective clinically than a sugar pill. The clinical trials show that any perceived benefit pediatric patients receive from taking Celexa or Lexapro in treating their depression is primarily explained by the placebo effect—the perceived efficacy of a drug based upon one’s belief that the drug works.”
Class action lawsuits had been filed against Forest in New York, Illinois, and Missouri and the cases had been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation. In February 2013, U.S. District Judge Gorton denied nationwide certification, but in January of this year, Judge Gorton agreed to certify a class of Missouri purchasers between July 2001 (for Celexa) and August 2002 (Lexapro) based on claims brought forth under Missouri law. According to the judge’s ruling, the class included all parents and other third parties in Missouri who purchased Celexa for a patient under the age of 18 between Jan. 1, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2013, or purchased Lexapro for a minor between Aug. 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2013.
According to the class action settlement, purchasers from Missouri can file a claim by showing what they paid for each of the medications during that period. Those who can’t identify the amount they spent but meet other class criteria will receive $50. As a condition of the Celexa/Lexapro settlement, Forest denies all of the “material factual allegations and legal claims,” and states that it agreed to settle the class action lawsuits only because “[l]itigation would be protracted and expensive.” Forest also states that the settlement “shall have no precedential value in any future litigation.”
Forest has been hit with other legal action recently. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a Celexa/Lexapro lawsuit that alleged the New York-based Forest Lab bribed doctors to prescribe the two antidepressants and marketed the drugs for pediatric use without approval and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to approve Celexa for pediatric use after a clinical trial showed the drug was no more effective than a placebo. Additionally, according to that complaint, patients who were on the drug were more likely to attempt suicide or have suicidal thoughts than those on the placebo. Allied Services Division Welfare Fund and New Mexico United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s and Employers’ Health and Welfare Trust Fund recently brought a complaint against Forest on behalf of those who had to pay or provide reimbursements for the antidepressant medications.
The plaintiffs are represented by Michael Baum and R. Brent Wisner of Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman PC and Christopher L. Coffin and Nicholas R. Rockforte of Pendley Baudin & Coffin LLP.
The Pediatric Celexa/Lexapro Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Celexa and Lexapro Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, Case No. 1:09-md-02067, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
If you were prescribed Celexa or Lexapro during pregnancy and subsequently have birth to a child with a birth defect, you may have a legal claim. Visit the SSRI Antidepressant Birth Defect Class Action Lawsuit Investigation for more details. Compensation specialists are standing by to review your claims for free.
UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the Celexa/Lexapro class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.Pediatric-Antidepressant-MissouriSettlement.com for details.
UPDATE 2: On June 27, 2016, Top Class Actions viewers who submitted timely and valid claims for the pediatric Celexa, Lexapro settlemen
t began receiving checks worth as much as $2,800.
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9 thoughts on$10M Class Action Settlement Reached in Pediatric Celexa, Lexapro MDL
Could’ve used this in 2018 when Celexa fried my brain. I’ve never been the same since it 6 years now and no lawyer will touch it because statute of limitations. I just want people to know the danger of ssri’s. Theee are many of us out there never the same because of these horrible drugs.
On April 13,2004 My son Kristopher Ryan Miller committed suicide in his dorm room at The Baylor School in Chattanooga Tennessee. I had filed and submitted into three different class actions (1 in Galveston Texas;also one in New York; also one with the Johnnie Cochran law firm in Atlanta) against the makers of Lexapro (I know I qualified because of $1,000 blood test that Proved the levels in his blood at the time). The Chief of police of Chattanooga (Charles Cooke) was also my son’s host family while at Baylor. He told me he did three different investigations. I still have everything from investigations. I can’t understand why no one helped me when I had a legitimate case. The things I have collected on Lexapro proves they knew what they were doing…I have sooo much information. I still cry to this day knowing how they killed my son. Every single day for seventeen years I relive the day my son died and everything I have discovered the drug maker Did to get Lexapro on the market through children’s doctors, and to know they never lowered the dosage for a child…my son was taking an adult dose at 17…there’s no way he had control of himself after only 4months. He was on overload! It’s about them taking a special person from the world. He was sooo Bright,he won a Scholarship to go away to high school! I had just talked to him that day..his host mom ( who works at the same school) said she saw him three times that day and he was happy and smiling. That same night he was gone. He had a battle with his thoughts after that…can I tell you what they discovered? In his battle of thoughts that night… he read every greeting card he had(his host mom brought them to me when they came to Dayton for his funeral) and what pierced my heart was they were all from me. But guess what was the kicker that I relived every day? When the dorm parent found my son in his closet…his phone was in his hand…with My Number on the face and all he had to do was press talk….that’s what I see every day for seventeen years is his battle with a drug in his system and the drug won!!! Every year for seventeen years I have looked up Lexapro just to find more and more things they did lawsuit after lawsuit. I’ve called sooo many law firms in the years since…no one wouldn’t even listen to my plea for help…Kristopher is just gone!!! They killed my son and ALL I wanted was for them to pay!!!! My name is Tammy Miller my number is 937-248-5541… I’m sure I’m doing this for nothing. His life was going to be great.
Celexa sent me to the ER with severe chest pains, headache, psychotic symptoms, etc. in 2012. Is there anything or any class action suit currently in which I could enroll?
I took Citaloprm 40mgs. I have a pacemaker/defibrillator. I got lifeflighted because my machine shocked me. While being lifeflighted I died and came back 14 times found out it was the citlopram.
This was in 2016
UPDATE 2: On June 27, 2016, Top Class Actions viewers who submitted timely and valid claims for the pediatric Celexa, Lexapro settlement began receiving checks worth as much as $2,800.
UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the Celexa/Lexapro class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit http://www.Pediatric-Antidepressant-MissouriSettlement.com for details.
I was on Lexapro and it did work for me. However, my son was on Celexa and it didn’t work for him. He experienced headaches, tremors, and confusion. I put on alot of weight and my blood pressure increased.
Im an adult that uses lexproI Is amazing to see. Because my doctor recerecently ask me what do this medication do for me and I told him nothing..wow just wow