Jury awards family millions in lawsuit against Botox maker after son's spasm treatments.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A New York couple who said Botox treatment of their son's cerebral palsy left him with life-threatening complications and sued its manufacturer won a $6.75 million verdict from a federal jury on Thursday.
The verdict, in U.S. District Court in Burlington, came three days after the announcement that Parsippany, New Jersey-based drugmaker Actavis would acquire Botox maker Allergan for $66 billion, one of the biggest acquisitions announced this year.
A lawyer for Mineville, New York, residents Lori and Kevin Drake said Joshua Drake, now 7, suffered calf spasms due to mild cerebral palsy until he got Botox injections to treat them at a Burlington hospital in 2012. The lawyer, Ray Chester, said Joshua has since developed epilepsy and must have an aide with him at all times in case he needs life-saving medications during a seizure.
Thursday's verdict came four years after Irvine, California-based Allergan agreed to pay $600 million, pleading guilty to a federal criminal charge and settling the government's civil complaint that it had improperly promoted Botox for off-label uses including juvenile cerebral palsy. The injections that damaged Joshua were given by a doctor in Burlington at the Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital, now known as the University of Vermont Medical Center, 19 months after the 2010 court action.
Chester said the doctor and the hospital were not defendants in the lawsuit.
Phone messages and an email sent to Allergan on Thursday afternoon drew no immediate response. At the time of its 2010 settlement with federal prosecutors in Atlanta, the company said Botox had been approved for treatment of juvenile cerebral palsy in 70 countries but not the United States.Read More
