AbbVie suffers $15 million loss in Depakote birth-defect trial
June 9 (Reuters) - A federal jury on Friday awarded $15 million to a California woman who blamed her son's birth defects on AbbVie Inc's bipolar disorder drug Depakote, in the latest trial to spill out of hundreds of lawsuits over the drug.
Jurors in federal court in East St. Louis, Illinois, awarded the compensatory damages to Christina Raquel, who said she was not adequately warned about a risk of birth defects when she took Depakote while pregnant.
Jurors will now consider whether to award punitive damages, a court official said. Her lawsuit was filed against Abbott Laboratories Inc, from which AbbVie was spun off. AbbVie has assumed all rights and responsibilities for the drug. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Andrew Hay)
