A ruling on Friday by a California appeals court is likely to spark a good many lawsuits against big pharma. The upshot – brand-name drugmakers were put on notice that they can be held liable not only for harm caused by their own meds, but also for injuries caused by a generic drugmaker selling a copycat version. The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco reinstated a lawsuit by Elizabeth Conte, who had taken a generic version of Wyeth’s Reglan heartburn med for nearly four years and developed tardive dyskinesia, which causes incurable and involuntary muscle movements. Although she took only generics, Conte accused Wyeth and three generic drugmakers of failing to warn of the risk of long-term use. In reaching its 3-to-0 decision, the court cited evidence that Conte’s doctor may have relied on product warnings distributed to physicians by Wyeth when he decided to prescribe the generic version. Meanwhile, summary judgement in favor of the generic drugmakers – Teva Pharmaceuticals, Pliva and Purepac Pharmaceuticals – was upheld. “As the foreseeable risk of physical harm runs to users of both name-brand and generic drugs,” Justice Peter Siggins wrote, “so too runs the duty of care and Wyeth has not persuaded us that consideration of other factors requires a different conclusion…We believe California law supports Conte’s position that Wyeth owes a duty of care to those people it should reasonably foresee are likely to ingest metoclopramide in either the name-brand or generic versions when it is prescribed by their physicians in reliance on Wyeth’s representations.” (Here is the ruling).
Please click on the link below to read the complete Pharmalot article:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/11/brand-name-makers-liable-for-generic-injuries/
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