Zoloft Lawsuit Facts
MDL
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, MDL No. 2342
Settlements/Verdicts
None in favor of plaintiffs

Latest Zoloft Lawsuit Updates

As of December 2024, there are no new updates in this litigation, and Drugwatch doesn’t know of any lawyers who are taking these cases.

Pfizer has won repeated court victories against people who sued over injuries they said were caused by top-selling antidepressant Zoloft. Judges have ruled that complaints failed to prove that Zoloft caused birth defects.

Courts have also held that the drug maker didn’t withhold important information from the Food and Drug Administration about potential side effects of Zoloft and that legal barriers prevented lawsuits from moving forward.

History of Zoloft Litigation

Since Zoloft was approved in 1991, hundreds of people have sued Pfizer claiming the drug was dangerous to unborn children or that it didn’t work as claimed to treat depression.

Across the board, Pfizer has won court battles, persuading judges and juries to side with the drug maker against injured parties. At one point, there were more than 700 federal lawsuits consolidated in the federal courts. Over the course of five years, they were all dismissed or withdrawn.

  • April 17, 2012
    More than 20 years after Zoloft (seratraline chloride) to the market, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated more than 40 lawsuits alleging birth defects. The multidistrict litigation (MDL) was assigned to a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
  • June 2, 2017
    A federal appeals court upheld Rufe’s ruling, effectively ending federal court litigation over the issue.
  • November 2017
    All the federal MDL cases had been dismissed or withdrawn.

State Courts Favor Pfizer

State courts have likewise sided with the drug maker, saying Pfizer was not legally liable for birth defects suffered by infants whose mothers took Zoloft.

  • April 2015
    A St. Louis jury sided with Pfizer in April 2015 in the case of a California boy who suffered birth defects after his mother took Zoloft while pregnant. The trial was the first in the country where the issue was litigated. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, jurors concluded that warnings on the drug were sufficient.
  • June 2015
    A jury in New York ruled that Pfizer was not responsible for the birth defects of a young girl whose mother took Zoloft while pregnant.
  • August 30, 2016
    A West Virginia state judge ruled that state law barred a lawsuit alleging Zoloft caused birth defects to a child born to a mother who took the drug while pregnant.
  • February 15, 2017
    A judge in West Virginia dismissed two cases against Pfizer, ruling that the injured parties had not proved Zoloft was the cause or that the drug maker withheld information from the Food and Drug Administration. According to that opinion, “The undisputed evidence presented by the defendants showed that the FDA and the scientific community have evaluated the safety of Zoloft for decades and that Zoloft has never been recalled, remains approved by the FDA as safe and effective, and thousands of physicians each year continue to prescribe it to bring needed relief to their patients who suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, and other conditions.”
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Zoloft Class Action Dismissed

In addition, a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in California on January 30, 2013 claimed that Pfizer wrongly marketed Zoloft as effective and safe at treating depression. Lawyers tried to have that suit designated to represent millions of consumers nationwide who had purchased Zoloft since it was approved in 1991. The complaint asserted that the majority of clinical trial data didn’t prove Zoloft worked. That lawsuit was dismissed in September 2014.

Although some attorneys may accept Zoloft cases alleging birth defects, and some lawsuits may still be pending in state courts, the litigation appears to have virtually run its course.



Why Did People File Zoloft Lawsuits?

The main claim in Zoloft lawsuits was that Pfizer aggressively marketed Zoloft to pregnant women despite knowing that the drug increased the risk of birth defects and autism. In addition, Zoloft lawsuits accused Pfizer of marketing an unsafe, ineffective drug and hiding information from the FDA.

Injuries mentioned in complaints include:
  • Autism
  • Atrial septal defects
  • Ventricular septal defects
  • Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn
  • Omphalocele (abdominal defects)
  • Craniosynostosis (skull defects)
  • Tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia
  • Transposition of the great arteries
  • Club feet
  • Spina bifida
  • Congenital heart defects

Lawsuits against Pfizer asserted that Zoloft caused injuries in children whose mother took the drug while pregnant. Judges and juries, however, sided with Pfizer.

An unsuccessful class-action complaint claimed Pfizer launched a massive marketing campaign designed to convince patients and doctors that Zoloft is effective and safe in treating depression, when most clinical trial data did not prove it worked. That California federal lawsuit was dismissed.

Zoloft Case Study

Cassie Chupp v. Pfizer
Cassie Chupp filed her Zoloft lawsuit in 2015 after she took Zoloft and her baby, Ember Alexis Chupp, was born with birth defects.

Zoloft Use:
Cassie Chupp took Zoloft during the first trimester of her pregnancy in 2004 after her doctor prescribed it to her. She took it throughout her pregnancy.

Injuries Claimed:
Ember Alexis Chupp was born with a bilateral club foot and had to have multiple surgeries from 2005 to 2012.

Relief Sought:
Judgement in excess of $75,000, compensatory damages, punitive damages and all other legal costs.

Please seek the advice of a medical professional before making health care decisions.