On May 1, 2015, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed into law a bill to “provide that a manufacturer is not liable ... for damages resulting from a product it did not design, manufacture, sell, or lease.” Sponsored by state...more
A federal district court has held that design defect claims against a brand pharmaceutical manufacturer are preempted by federal law. Booker v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 3:12 oe 40000, 2014 WL 5113305 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 10,...more
Last week, the Supreme Court of Alabama confirmed its January 2013 holding that manufacturers of brand drugs can be liable for injuries caused by generic drugs. Weeks v. Wyeth, Inc., No. 1101397, slip op. (Ala. Aug. 15,...more
Earlier this year, in the widely followed In re: Actos (Pioglitazone) Products Liability Litigation matter, a Louisiana federal jury ordered a drug manufacturer to pay $6 billion in punitive damages and $1.5 million in actual...more
On June 2, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration launched openFDA, a program designed to improve access to publicly available data beginning with adverse event reports. While greater accessibility to adverse event reports...more
Last week, a federal district court in Illinois held that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a branded drug manufacturer, owed a duty of care to a patient who took the generic version of its drug. Dolin v. SmithKline Beecham Corp., No....more
An economic consulting group recently published findings that a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rule will increase annual healthcare costs by $4 billion. The FDA's proposal, announced in November 2013, will allow...more
Issuing an opinion over two years after oral argument, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week in Lance v. Wyeth that pharmaceutical companies can be held liable for negligence in the design and marketing of drugs....more
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a long-awaited proposed rule in the Federal Register in an effort to “create parity” between brand-name and generic manufacturers for their labeling obligations. 78...more
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the much-anticipated Mutual Pharms. Co. v. Bartlett, No. 12-142 (on appeal from the First Circuit Bartlett v. Mutual Pharms. Co., 678 F.3d 30 (1st Cir. 2012)). As we...more
Dear Doctor letters were front and center in the just-tried case of Tietz v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., et al., No. 12-L-002715. On Thursday, May 9, 2013, a Chicago jury returned a $2.2 million verdict in favor of the...more