A Louisiana mother has filed a Zoloft lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. alleging that by ingesting its popular antidepressant drug, her son was born with a life-threatening heart defect.

Plaintiff Regina Dragon was prescribed Zoloft to treat an undisclosed medical condition during her pregnancy, according to her Zoloft lawsuit.

Dragon alleges that neither she or her physician been adequately warned that Zoloft could cause congenital birth defects if ingested during pregnancy, she would not have taken the drug.

Dragon’s Zoloft lawyers claim that she was not aware that this drug could cause such birth defects until recently, and she had not been given proper disclosure at the time she was prescribed the medication. Therefore, the Zoloft lawsuit says, Dragon was unable to make a reasonable decision at the time. The Zoloft lawsuit seeks to hold Pfizer accountable for allegedly deliberately concealing that Zoloft can cause serious birth defects.

Dragon’s Zoloft lawsuit accuses Pfizer of negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.  The Zoloft birth defect lawsuit further alleges:

• Pfizer knew Zoloft could pose a risk of congenital birth defects and kept this information from patients and doctors
• The warnings on Zoloft are inadequate and do not even mention the risks to a fetus
• Pfizer failed to tell the medical community the risks to a fetus if using Zoloft during pregnancy
• Zoloft poses an “extreme risk” to a fetus and its benefits to the mother do not outweigh this risk
• Rather than pull the drug from the market or revise label warnings, Pfizer took no action and continues to promote Zoloft as a safe and effective treatment
• Pfizer knew or should have known that Zoloft crosses the placenta and that children were being born with congenital birth defects

What’s The Problem With Zoloft?

Zoloft is used by millions of Americans to treat depression. More specifically, pregnant women have been prescribed Zoloft to help with anxiety involved with their pregnancies. The fetuses of these women using Zoloft or other SSRI antidepressants such as Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, and Symbyax are at a greater risk of developing a birth defect.

Studies have documented a connection between anti-depressants of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class — like Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac — and birth defects, specifically heart defects. According to the British Medical Journal, SSRIs carry twice the risk of other congenital heart defects overall when taken during pregnancy.

Common heart defects include:

• Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS)
• Tetralogy of Fallot
• Pulmonary atresia
• Transposition of the great vessels
• Persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns (PPHN)
• Septal heart defects (hole in the tissue that separates the chambers of the heart)

Also, the New England Journal of Medicine found that children born to women who took Zoloft specifically during pregnancy faced the following increased risks when compared to those who did not take SSRI antidepressants.

Dragon is seeking all general, special, and punitive damages in excess of $75,000 for Pfizer’s alleged failure to warn and negligence in promoting Zoloft. Dragon has requested a jury trial for this case.

The Zoloft Birth Defect Lawsuit is Regina Dragon as next friend of Jeremy Dragon, a minor v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-033114-CMR, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Zoloft Lawsuits

More than 600 Zoloft lawsuits have been filed against Pfizer. However, these are not consolidated into a Zoloft class action lawsuit. Instead, most Zoloft lawsuits are centralized in a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2342) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Additional Zoloft lawsuits are pending in Alabama, California, Illinois, Missouri, and New York.