Scripting Avandia suits

The mass tort litigation industry is at a crossroads. To stay in business, plaintiff's lawyers and the businesses that support them must find new prey; the optimal targets are organizations that have very deep pockets and produce products that touch millions of Americans' lives.

Pharmaceutical companies are about the only obvious source of sustenance for a branch of the legal profession that suckled on toxic substances and thrived on tobacco smoke. Thus, it was not surprising that about 60 of the nation's leading tort lawyers recently met in a Chicago hotel conference room to discuss how to successfully sue GlaxoSmithKline plc over Avandia rosiglitazone...