The U.S. District Judge presiding over all consolidated Zoloft lawsuits has lifted a stay in the litigation and will permit plaintiffs to name a new expert witness.

That follows a ruling that excluded certain key expert testimony that was to be offered in support of the claims linking side effects of Zoloft to birth defects.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe will allow Nicholas Jewell as their new causation expert. Jewell is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Division of Biostatistics, and is expected to testify that there is scientific evidence that the side effects of Zoloft can cause congenital birth defects in an unborn child.

The previous expert witness, Dr. Anick Bérard, was set to testify on a wide variety of birth defects linked to Zoloft. However, last year, Judge Rufe barred testimony from Dr. Bérard after finding that she “failed to base her opinion upon scientifically valid methodology and reasoning.”

Zoloft Birth Defect Risk

Zoloft is one of the most widely prescribed medications in the United States, and has been used by tens of millions of individuals. However, several studies have suggested that use of Zoloft by pregnant women has been linked to a potential increased risk of serious and potentially life-threatening birth defects and malformation for children.

In November 2006, the FDA added warnings about a potential risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns (PPHN) from Zoloft and other newer antidepressants when taken after the 20th week of pregnancy.

The side effects of Zoloft and other similar medications were linked to a six times greater risk of PPHN. In June 2007, studies found an association between the use of antidepressants like Zoloft early in the pregnancy and a risk of abnormal skull development, gastrointestinal abnormality and heart defects.

In September 2009, a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that SSRI antidepressants like Zoloft increase the risk of heart defects when taken during the first trimester, a time when many women do not even know they are pregnant.

All of the claims in the Zoloft birth defect lawsuits raise similar allegations, claiming that Pfizer has known for years about the risk of birth defects, yet withheld information from consumers and the medical community in an attempt to avoid damaging sales of the blockbuster antidepressant.

Zoloft Lawsuits

In the federal court system, there are currently more than 525 Zoloft lawsuits pending against Pfizer involving allegations that the drug maker failed to adequately warn about the birth defect risks associated with use of Zoloft during pregnancy, which has been linked to reports of children born with severe birth injuries and malformations.

Since April 2012, complaints filed in U.S. District Courts throughout the country have been centralized for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL.