The family of a little girl born with serious birth defects has filed a birth defects lawsuit against drug maker Pfizer, alleging Zoloft was the cause of her massive birth defects.

The Zoloft lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs Sophia and Stanshone Russell on behalf of their daughter, who was born with serious birth defects after Sophia took Zoloft during the pregnancy, in accordance with a doctor’s prescription.

According to the Russell family’s Zoloft birth defects lawsuit, Sophia was prescribed Zoloft in 2001, partially due to Pfizer’s aggressive marketing of the drug.

In March 2002, Sophia gave birth to her daughter, who suffered widespread deformities to her skeleton, including congenital dislocations — being born with dislocated bones — throughout her body.

The child also suffered skull deformities and a cleft lip and palate, a failure of the face to fully close during development. The child needed intensive medical care to correct these birth defects, and will require ongoing care into the future.

The Zoloft birth defects lawsuit holds that these birth defects were caused by the drug, and that Pfizer Inc. did not do enough to protect the public from this risk. The Russells allege that Pfizer was aware — or reasonably should have been aware — of the risks allegedly linking Zoloft to birth defects like cleft lips.

Allegedly, some of the earliest animal trials of antidepressants related to Zoloft indicated that these drugs could cause birth defects in pregnant mammals. The Zoloft birth defect lawsuit holds that in spite of this research, Pfizer aggressively marketed the drug.

According to their Zoloft birth defect lawsuit, Pfizer invested millions promoting Zoloft, resulting in billions of dollars in sales.

The Russells’ Zoloft birth defect lawsuit is not alone. So many Zoloft birth defects lawsuits have been filed in federal courts that the court system has grouped them together into a type of coordinated legal action called a multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

MDLs are coordinated groups of very similar lawsuits. This allows the court system to keep track of testimony and evidence, streamlining the legal process by combining tens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual lawsuits into a single MDL.

The Zoloft Birth Defects Lawsuit is Sophia Antoinette Russell, et al., v. Pfizer Inc., et al., Case No. 4102, within the larger Zoloft birth defect MDL In Re: Zoloft (Sertaline Hydrochloride) Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2342, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania.