The class action In re Forest Laboratories, Inc. Securities Litigation, 1:05-cv-02827 (S.D.N.Y.), has been set for trial on November 3, 2008.
Initiated by a complaint filed in the Southern District Court of New York in March 2005, the action is being prosecuted by class representatives who claim that Forest violated federal securities laws in marketing and promoting its SSRI antidepressants, Celexa and Lexapro, and its Alzheimer’s drug, Namenda. Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that Forest deceived the investing public by hiding the risk of suicidality posed by the antidepressants to the pediatric and adolescent populations and the fact that the antidepressants failed to demonstrate efficacy in treating those populations. The case had originally been set for trial in July 2008, but that trial date was adjourned. In a June 3, 2008 order approving the parties’ class notice stipulation, the court set the trial date for November 3, 2008.
Notably, in Forest’s August 8, 2008 filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the company disclosed that the only lawsuits currently pending against it other than the securities case are the cases pending in the suicidality MDL, In re Celexa and Lexapro Products Liab. Lit., MDL No. 06-md-01736, and approximately 25 birth defects cases. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/38074/000003807408000019/forest10qjun08.htm
