AbbVie Ordered by Jury to Pay $15 Million to Depakote Victim
- Boy claimed company failed to warn of spina bifida risk
- AbbVie says potential Depakote effects were properly disclosed
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AbbVie Inc. must pay $15 million to compensate a California boy with a split spine for failing to properly warn his mother and her doctors that its Depakote drug could cause birth defects.
Jurors in federal court in Illinois delivered the verdict for Stevie Gonzalez on Friday in their third day of deliberations. The 10-year-old boy’s mother took Depakote for bipolar depression during pregnancy and he was born with spina bifida. He’s undergone 12 surgeries and is confined to a wheelchair. His suit is one of about 700 pending in U.S. courts against the drugmaker over Depakote.