07/14/2008-The maker of the recalled heart drug Digitek faces at least nine federal lawsuits in New Jersey, including one that alleges the drug was dangerous and defective that was filed by the estate of a Texas woman who died.
The lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J. list as defendants the Iceland-based generic pharmaceutical maker Actavis Group and its U.S. subsidiary, Actavis Totowa LLL of Morristown, N.J.
Actavis Totowa started a nationwide recall of all strengths of the Digitek pills on April 25.
Mylan Pharmaceuticals and UDL Laboratories, both of which are also named as defendants in the lawsuits, distributed those pills.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in West Virginia and California.
The estate of Margaret Lucille Crooker of Kemp, Texas, filed one of the New Jersey lawsuits.
It alleges the drug caused her "serious physical injury, pain and suffering" before she died on March 15.
Kemp is about 45 miles southeast of Dallas.
Actavis Totowa has declined to comment.