A jury has awarded a Minnesota girl a total of $38 million, ending a lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories in which the girl’s family alleged the epilepsy medication Depakote caused the girl’s birth defects. This is the first verdict against Abbott, the maker of Depakote.

The family alleged in its Depakote lawsuit that Abbott officials defectively designed Depakote and then hid its risks from patients and their doctors. The jury agreed, finding that the girl and her family deserved $15 million in compensatory damages and $23 million in punitive damages for birth defects associated with the mother’s use of Depakote during pregnancy. The 12-year-old girl suffers from spina bifida.

Under Missouri law, in order to assess punitive damages jurors had to find that Abbott’s mishandling of the drug showed a conscious disregard for safety.

The verdict doesn’t bode well for Abbott, which faces more than 800 Depakote lawsuits, all similarly alleging the drug company hid the association between the anti-seizure medication and birth defects.

While the Depakote lawsuit named Abbott Laboratories as the defendant, its subsidiary, AbbVie Inc., is responsible for all Depakote litigation as a result of agreements made when Abbott spun off its branded-drug business, now know as AbbVie, in 2013.

AbbVie officials have indicated they intend to appeal the jury’s findings.

What is Depakote?

Depakote (also known as valproic acid) is a popular drug used to treat epilepsy and manic episodes of bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, there are many Depakote side effects associated with the anti-convulsant, such as spina bifida, that have resulted in Depakote lawsuits, including a Depakote class action lawsuit in the U.K.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified Depakote as a Pregnancy Category D drug due to its likelihood of causing serious and potentially life-threatening birth defects.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a study in 2010 tying Depakote to an increased risks of six different birth defects, including spina bifida. Previous studies linking Depakote to birth defects prompted federal regulators to require Abbott to put a strong warning against use during pregnancy on the drug’s safety label in 2006. The next year, the FDA also required Abbott and other makers of anti-seizure drugs to beef up warnings about suicide risks tied to the medications.

In 2012, Abbott paid $1.6 billion to settle federal and state claims resulting from a probe of the company’s Depakote marketing practices. Abbott marketed the drug, approved for epilepsy, bipolar mania and migraine prevention, for unapproved uses, such as dementia, federal prosecutors claimed.

Depakote Lawsuits

The anticonvulsant drug Depakote has been linked to a number of serious birth defects, including spina bifida, fetal trauma, fetal death, and malformations of the mouth, heart, hand, ribs and urethra. The U.S. Department of Justice is currently investigating Abbott for illegally marketing Depakote for unapproved purposes.

Many parents of children injured by the mother’s use of Depakote while pregnant have filed Depakote lawsuits alleging Abbott did not properly test the drug and failed to warn doctors and patients of the true dangers of taking the medication, particularly when they could become pregnant.

The Depakote Birth Defects Lawsuit is Case No. 1222-CC-0247901, Missouri Circuit Court (St. Louis).