The widower of a woman who committed suicide after taking the anti-depressant drug Paxil has won a significant ruling in his wrongful death suit against the drug’s manufacturer that allows him to pursue his claim that the company hid the truth about the drug’s side effects from the FDA.
In her 13-page opinion in Hoppe v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Anita B. Brody refused to dismiss the suit on statute-of-limitations grounds, finding instead that the plaintiff must be allowed discovery on issues relating to when the manufacturer first learned of Paxil’s alleged risk of suicide.
