Sanofi's First Win In Taxotere Trial Overturned
Fri, 03/04/2022 - 06:22
Sanofi's first win in a bellwether trial over Taxotere hair loss has been overturned by a federal appeals court, indicating a new trial to be held.
The case was one of the thousands of claims brought before a federal jury that alleged Sanofi failed to warn about the risk of permanent hair loss associated with Taxotere. The overturning of the verdict with a scheduled new trial is indicated by the U.S. Court of Appeals, citing the inadmissible testimony introduced by Sanofi during the trial.
The plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the company in December 2016. As per the complaint, the plaintiff got diagnosed with breast cancer after using the drug from June 2011 to August 2011. The lawsuit argued that the plaintiff lost her hair like other chemotherapy patients and did not grow back, which is an unwarned side effect of Taxotere.
In the earlier trial where Sanofi presented testimony from two doctors, one of which was a former official of the company. The appeals court ruled the testimony from the former official of the company should not have been considered by the jury as it was misguiding.
Currently, Sanofi faces 12,000 Taxotere lawsuits throughout the nation from women with similar allegations in every lawsuit that the company misguided the users about temporary hair loss post the breast cancer chemotherapy treatment.
U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo is overseeing all the Taxotere cases, which are centralized as part of multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the federal court of the Eastern District of Louisiana for a coordinated discovery.
Jury Denies Drugmakers Stay Order Plea In Opioid Suit
Thu, 03/03/2022 - 15:00
A federal judge of California has ordered to resume the opioid lawsuit against multiple drugmakers and pharmacies, including Teva Pharmaceutical and Walgreens.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies created a public nuisance by fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic throughout the state. The companies filed a petition in the court to delay the proceedings of the lawsuit as it will give them sufficient time to collect evidence and prepare for the trials.
The lawsuit is a part of multidistrict litigation (MDL), and it is yet uncertain if the ruling of this case will close any of the claims in district court. The attorneys for the plaintiffs hope that at least some of the opioid claims from the MDL get resolved.
The case date backs to 2018 when the state of California and the city and county of San Francisco brought allegations against the pharmacies, opioid manufacturers, distributors and marketers of improperly dispensing prescription opioids. The companies deceptively marketed the drugs, which resulted in physicians overprescribing them, eventually resulting in the opioid crisis.
Last year, Judge Peter J. Wilson of Orange County ruled that drugmakers Allergan PLC, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its subsidiary Par Pharmaceutical Inc could not be blamed for the opioid crisis in the state and cannot be held responsible for causing a public nuisance. Even Johnson & Johnson (J&J) was a defendant in this case but was not a part of the federal suit.