Morrison Mahoney Partner Arthur Liederman recently obtained a dismissal of a generic pharmaceutical drug manufacturer in the United States Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
The plaintiff alleged that she used a corticosteroid, methylprednisolone, prescribed by her doctor to treat poison ivy. Within days she became “increasingly erratic, argumentative, and irrational.” She later attempted suicide by carbon monoxide poison, killing her pets in the process. The plaintiffs alleged that the generic methylprednisolone she received was “mislabeled regarding the active ingredient, prescription strength corticosteroids, and was not accompanied by adequate warnings regarding the potential adverse side effects associated with the use of corticosteroids” and caused her attempt of suicide, thereby causing the death of her pets.
The defendants moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the claims are preempted pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, 564 U.S. 604 (2011), which states that federal law bars generic manufacturers from making any unilateral changes to a drug’s label or design. Similarly, the judge ruled that plaintiff’s fraud claim is preempted because it seeks to challenge the content of the drug’s label.
An article about Arthur’s courtroom success was published in HarrisMartin Publishing. View the full piece here [subscription.]
