Federal Judge Denies GSK Summary Judgment in Teen Suicide Case

PHILADELPHIA - Claims linking GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil to a teenager's 2002 suicide are not preempted because the company may have had evidence warranting the addition of a suicide warning as early as July 2001, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled. Knipe v. GlaxoSmithKline, No. 06-3024 (E.D. Pa.).

In an Aug. 28 opinion, Senior Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found issues of fact as to whether the drug manufacturer possessed "reasonable evidence of an association" between pediatric suicide and Paxil.

Marion Knipe sued GlaxoSmithKline in July 2006, alleging that her 16-year old …