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PHILADELPHIA - The federal government has taken action to block lawsuits like one filed by Columbine survivor Mark Taylor against one of the world's largest drug manufacturers.
Taylor claims that the antidepressant Luvox made Eric Harris homicidal and suicidal and helped spark the deadly Columbine massacre in which Taylor was gravely wounded by Harris.
Taylor and dozens of others have filed suits against manufacturers of a family of antidepressants known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which include Luvox, Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil.
The lawsuits claim that the drugs can cause some people to commit murder and suicide. The drug companies strongly deny those allegations.
In recent weeks, the U.S. Justice Department has filed motions in two SSRI civil lawsuits against manufacturers of the antidepressants. The government has sided with the drug companies, declaring that SSRIs don't cause people to become violent or suicidal.
One of the cases involves Paxil, the other Zoloft.
Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has made repeated determinations that there is no scientific basis to show the drugs cause violence or suicide.
The "FDA has examined the matter and has repeatedly found that there is no causal relation between taking the class of drug products known as SSRIs, which includes Zoloft, and an increased risk of suicide," McCallum wrote.
The decision of the Justice Department and the FDA to inject themselves into the legal controversy over the safety of the drugs has upset about 70 people meeting in Philadelphia through the weekend. They include families who have lost loved ones through suicide; Mark Taylor and his mother, Donna; and the lawyers and experts who have filed lawsuits and questioned the safety of the drugs.
They include part of Taylor's legal team and three other lawyers - Andy Vickery, Don Farber and Skip Murgatroyd - who have filed many suits against drug giants GlaxoSmithKline, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
Murgatroyd noted that the government's action came a little over a year after a federal jury in Cheyenne returned a $6.4 million award against GlaxoSmithKline, which makes Paxil.
The Wyoming jury made two specific findings. It found that the antidepressant "can cause some individuals to commit suicide and/or homicide." And in the case of Wyoming oil field worker Donald Schell, the jury found that Paxil caused him to fatally shoot his wife, daughter and granddaughter before killing himself.
Tim Tobin was one of the plaintiffs. Tobin lost his wife and daughter in the shootings.
Murgatroyd said he was told by Justice lawyers that they intervened at the request of the FDA, which in turn had been asked for help by the drug companies.
"The Tobin verdict in Wyoming was particularly scary to the drug companies," Murgatroyd said. "The drug companies have now pulled out all the stops. This is the FDA weighing in to eliminate all lawsuits."
But the FDA says it is getting involved to help the American public. It noted that in one of the cases, Murgatroyd persuaded a federal judge in California to issue a preliminary injunction against Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, prohibiting Pfizer from engaging in allegedly false advertising claims, specifically TV ads that claimed Zoloft was not habit-forming.
The FDA said that not only was there no evidence to back up Murgatroyd's false-advertising claim but that to disseminate scientifically unsubstantiated warnings could deprive people of beneficial, possibly lifesaving treatment.
But during day-long seminars over the weekend, the lawyers, experts and families said that the SSRI antidepressants can harm.
Vickery, who won the Tobin case, said a lot of people are helped by the drug. But he said a small "subpopulation," of people such as Donald Schell are harmed.
"It shouldn't happen that the cure harms the patient more than the disease itself," Vickery said.
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