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A Tennessee woman charges that Prozac caused her husband to hang himself 13 days after being prescribed the drug by his cardiologist for chest pain and loss of weight.
The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, is the latest in more than 200 lawsuits against Prozac maker Eli Lilly and Co. since the early 1990s.
Plaintiff Amby Cole, joined by her two children, says in the lawsuit that Milton Cole’s death in June 2001 “fits the signature pattern” of suicide caused by the Prozac family of antidepressants.
Cole wasn’t seriously depressed or suicidal and “became nervous, jittery and aggravated” after taking Prozac, the lawsuit says.
The wrongful-death and product-liability lawsuit charges that Prozac causes violent side effects that are dose-related, but Lilly “chose not to pursue” a lower-dose Prozac and put a once-weekly version on the market only last year.
“Lilly did not start marketing a once-a-week Prozac until its patent rights had been adjudicated as over and it was threatened in the marketplace with a generic formulation,” the lawsuit says.
Lilly has always maintained that Prozac’s side effects don’t include suicidal or violent thoughts. In the only two Prozac civil suits to come to trial, juries have sided with Lilly.
Attorneys for plaintiffs in the latest suit are J. Houston Gordon of Covington, Tenn., and Andy Vickery of Houston. Call Jeff Swiatek at 1-317-444-6483.
Copyright 2002 The Indianapolis Star
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