She cut her medical leave short to keep her job - then says she was demoted
Daiichi Sankyo demoted a longtime associate director after she took medical leave for a mental health crisis, then fired her, a new lawsuit claims.
The former clinical operations employee sued the pharmaceutical company on September 9, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. She says the company pushed her aside after she took medical leave, ignored her request for support when she came back, and fired her while that request was still open. Her claims fall under three laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which covers disability discrimination; the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which protects job-protected medical leave; and New Jersey's anti-discrimination statute.
By her account, it started well. She joined Daiichi Sankyo in December 2022, earned a positive first-year review and a raise, and got a strong mid-year review in October 2023 with nothing flagged to fix. The filing says she has lived with depression, anxiety and PTSD since 2016, following the sudden death of her son.
That changed in February 2024, the complaint says, when she had a mental health crisis and her doctor told her to take leave straight away. She told her supervisor the leave was "personal" and "necessary." According to the filing, the supervisor reacted with open hostility on the video call and, the same day, asked IT for access to the worker's email, citing an "unknown return date."
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