Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘pharmaceuticals’

Informants rejoice

It seems the Senate-passed financial reform bill includes whistleblower bounties and other legal goodies. [Whistleblower Law Blog] On tax informants, see our post of Wednesday.

Bonus: Amy Kolz at American Lawyer (“Serial whistle-blower Joseph Piacentile makes millions helping the government uncover fraud. That’s how the False Claims Act is supposed to work. Or is it?”). And David Walk at Drug and Device Law assails as “dumb,” credulous, and based upon a biased sample a New England Journal of Medicine feature on whistleblowing in the pharmaceutical industry:

The New England Journal of Medicine bills itself as “the world’s most influential medical journal,” and it unquestionably publishes groundbreaking articles about medicine. But all too often in recent years the NEJM has strayed from what it knows — medicine – into what it doesn’t – law and public policy, particularly tort policy. No longer content with editorials encouraging litigation against anyone but doctors, the NEJM now publishes public policy advocacy pieces dressed up as scientific studies, with the implicit suggestion that those studies should get the benefit of the NEJM’s good name in public policy debates.

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CCAF amicus brief in fen-phen fees case

Overlawyered readers are well aware of the sorry history of the fen-phen litigation; those that aren’t are advised to check out Professor Lester Brickman’s summary.

In April 2008, the Diet Drugs MDL district court awarded $567 million the class counsel in that case, basing the award in part on representations by class counsel about future class recovery. A year later, a plaintiff’s attorney requested the court reopen the question of the fee award because the class counsel had exaggerated those estimates. The district court refused, holding that the one-year delay in bringing the Rule 60(b) motion was not a “reasonable time.” There has been an appeal to the Third Circuit, and, today, the Center for Class Action Fairness filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal that itself provides a short overview of the history of the fen-phen MDL. Many thanks to Chris Arfaa for his generous help in filing the brief.

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“Lawyers behind lame Digitek claims face punishment”

“U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin plans to punish lawyers who filed worthless claims against Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Actavis Totowa.” Defense lawyers spent more than $100,000 establishing that some plaintiffs who claimed injury from the heart medication had other causes of death listed on their death certificate, and at least one lawyer admitted that his client had never used the drug. [Korris, WV Record; cross-posted from Point of Law; typo now fixed]

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How class actions get invented

Sean Wajert on a class action filed against Bayer:

Plaintiffs are consumers who claim to have purchased Bayer combination aspirin and dietary supplement products. They do not claim that they were injured by these products or that the products were ineffective. Instead, plaintiffs seek damages because they say they would not have purchased these products if they had known that Bayer, instead of submitting a New Drug Application (“NDA”) for each of these combination products, relied on the preexisting separate regulatory review of aspirin and the supplements.

More: Ron Miller.

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Roche withdrawing Accutane after jury verdicts

The news is on the Bloomberg wire. Beck & Herrmann have this to say: “Despite the absence of scientific evidence, juries have repeatedly awarded millions of dollars to folks who developed IBD [inflammatory bowel disease] after taking Accutane. … If you ever need another example of the cost of litigation driving a beneficial drug off the market, add Accutane to your list.” From the Bloomberg account it appears, however, that generic versions of the powerful anti-acne medication will continue to be available — for now, at least.

More: New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance (“If you are reading this and currently taking Accutane, trial lawyers owe you an apology. You just lost your drug.”); a curious 2002 Accutane lawsuit.

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Prescription drug abusers, be not ashamed

Under the holding of a recent court opinion, if you were never prescribed a drug but unlawfully grab and pop pills that had been prescribed to someone else, you (or your estate) can sue the manufacturer anyway for side effects you are said to have suffered. The court did disallow claims for failure to warn, but left standing claims that the drug (fen-phen) posed too high a risk to users overall [Beck & Herrmann, Crowe v. Wyeth, E.D. Pa. applying Missouri law]

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