Law Firm Seeks to Reopen Fraud Case Against Allergan Subsidiary

A Washington, D.C. law firm petitioned the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston to reopen an investigation of Forest Laboratories, claiming the company misrepresented clinical trial results used as the basis for Lexapro’s approval for pediatric use.

Forest Laboratories pleaded guilty to illegally marketing Celexa (citalopram) and Lexapro (escitalopram) in 2010 in a $188 million settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The law firm, Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman, said it discovered documents during a series of civil lawsuits concerning Celexa and Lexapro that show a “much deeper deception than the government ever suspected.”