Top court backs rulings absolving drugmaker's Japan agent over deaths laid to Iressa

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld high court rulings that the Japanese unit of British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC bore no liability over fatal side effects caused by the lung cancer drug Iressa.

The top court thus turned down appeals from relatives of patients who died from side effects of the drug. It previously did not accept appeals against lower court rulings absolving the central government of liability over the deaths.

The Tokyo High Court in November 2011 and the Osaka High Court last May both turned down the plaintiffs' demand for damages, both ruling that the government and AstraZeneca K.K., the Japanese unit of AstraZeneca PLC, were not liable for the patients' deaths.