Last week [Sept 4, 2001] I highlighted the story of the Seroquel Lawsuit blogger who has took it upon himself to post the settlement package offered by Seroquel manufacturer's AstraZeneca.
A settlement package is often made in litigation cases whereby the defending party, make an offer of compensation to claimants that have made the allegations against one of its products. It is the norm for that settlement to include no admittance of liability and also a 'gagging order', which prevents those it has made the settlement with, not to speak out publicly.
AstraZeneca have offered a settlement to over 28,000 litigants that are currently part of a group action against the company. The package, which can only be described as derisory, has incensed a number of claimants and has now been posted online and made public. This has further angered AstraZeneca, lawyers representing them and lawyers representing the 28,000+ litigants.
It appears that two offers have been tabled, one by The Miller Firm LLC and one by Weitz & Luxenberg. The litigants have, it appears, also been contacted by Garretson, the court appointed claims administrator.
Moving in the circles I do, I have managed to bag an interview with the anonymous blogger. Rather than chop and use selective quotes, I decided to post the interview 'as is' for your perusal.
What made you create the Seroquel Lawsuit Blog?
The blog was started because there was nothing out there questioning anything to do with this litigation or covering the patient/victim/injured parties perspective besides what the main stream media was being spoon fed by AstraZeneca and law firms.
Here we have a powerful & dangerous antipsychotic drug being mass marketed for everything under the sun by a criminal corporation at the tune of $5.5 billion a year in profit Couple that fact (that along with similar others drugs), that Seroquel was (and still is) permanently injuring (if not killing) many tens of thousands of people and all we hear, in relationship to this tragedy, is endless drivel about meaningless small fines, and Wall Street dollars figures.
The evidence is overwhelming and well documented that AstraZeneca did and continues to mass market and sell a drug that is unsafe by a litany of nefarious means.Meantime, our government (including the Department of Justice) looks on idol and blinded while taking a small token hush bribe, which has just further emboldened and allowed AstraZeneca to continue their criminal business as usual model, without any admission of guilt or accepting responsibility for the many crimes they have perpetrated upon the citizens of America and people around the globe.
Someone had to speak out - why not the SeroquelLawSuitBlog?
We don't have an epidemic of Psychosis in America after all, what we do have is a population mired down in the mud bog of apathy which allows corporations like AstraZeneca to disease monger and continue their criminal assault upon some of the most vulnerable populations imaginable (our children, elderly, and returning veterans).
Can you list some of the side effects caused by Seroquel?
All anyone needs to do is pull out the latest Seroquel package insert, there are over seventy pages of serious side effects: weight gain, diabetes, sudden death from cardiac related issues, metabolic issues, and the list just goes on and on as more debilitating side effects are being added all the time.
AstraZeneca knew these problems existed, but instead of conducting further testing about the myriad of safety concerns AstraZeneca buried and hid the bad news, while turning this drug over to their marketing department. Still to this day, AstraZeneca is conducting trials that are pushing for, and focused on, broadening/expanding the use of this drug for general consumption by the public. "Shameful" would be a mammoth understatement
Have you been told of the implications in publishing a 'settlement package' online?
I would hope the implication of this blog is that people become informed and knowledgeable to what is actually going on here. This is a criminal corporation that for mere pocket change and an insulting token offer is about to walk away emboldened, unscathed, and rewarded for their unscrupulous practices. I happen to see this ongoing corporate pharmaceutical industry assault on the public as one of the greatest and horrible crimes of modern times. When you look around at what has conspired in the corporate world, banking, Wall Street, and governments currently and over the past few decades, that's saying a lot.
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As far as these ambulance chasing law firms go, they have no doubt sold injured parties down the river for their own gain and profit. The numbers don't lie, the public needs to know about these sleazy goings on. Change won't happen until we, the public, demand and force it to happen. The days of America and populations around the world sitting back thinking someone else (the government, the courts, lawyers, FDA, Department of Justice) will take care of these problems for us has long past.
I have nothing to fear, it is quickly coming to the point in time where there will be nothing left for criminal elements to take from us. 'Too Big to Fail' really means too big and corrupted not to fail. Simply, we have a situation that is unsustainable.
If there was one message you could give to claimants in the Seroquel litigation, what would it be?
I would hope Seroquel Claimants would become informed and active participants in this process, look at the evidence, look at the numbers, start questioning, take the time to seriously consider what's really being placed on the table and think for themselves. I would hope each litigant would do a serious gut check, put this litigation and the lawyers to the smell test, follow what's in their hearts...and do the right thing.
In your mind, what would be a reasonable settlement?
That's a tough one, I believe each litigant needs to assess that question based on the level of damage done, losses incurred, suffering endured. Very difficult to place a price tag on permanent damage done to ones health or the death of a loved one.
AstraZeneca has ten billion dollars sitting in cash reserves, that is blood money made upon damaging the health of others. In a just and fair world AstraZeneca would have to place half of that money (5 billion) in a medical trust that would provide ongoing and future medical care to those they have injured ( The general public still don't seem to realize that they, the public tax payer, are being left with the financial burden of caring for those AstraZeneca has harmed). Beyond that, the other 5 billion could be a small start in compensating the victims of AstraZeneca's crimes.
But even more important than the money AstraZeneca needs to openly apologize to each injured victim and the general public while accepting full responsibility for what they have done..
Until that day comes...nothing will really change.
The Seroquel Lawsuit Blog continues to be updated on a regular basis and can be found HERE
