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Largest Civil Settlement in Pharmaceutical Case Announced by U.S. Department of Justice
April 27, 2010AstraZeneca will pay the federal government $520 million in civil fines to settle charges of off-label marketing of the powerful antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The settlement is the largest pharmaceutical civil settlement and among the top five civil and criminal drug company settlements in U.S. history. The first complaint in the matter was filed on behalf of a whistleblower by qui tam whistleblower, class action, and mass tort attorney Stephen A. Sheller, Esq. of Philadelphia's Sheller, P.C. in 2004. Sheller and firm partner Brian J. McCormick, Jr., Esq. also represented whistleblowers in previous off-label, failure to warn, and consumer fraud drug investigations, including 2009's Eli Lilly and Pfizer record settlements for $1.4 and $2.3 billion respectively. Full release.