PRODUCTS LIABILITY – Hormone-Replacement Drugs; Inadequate Warning; Punitive Damages 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, November 9, 2009
By admin

(1) Where a woman diagnosed with breast cancer brought a products liability action against the manufacturers of hormone-replacement drugs, a jury verdict finding the manufacturers were liable for inadequate warnings of the drugs’ cancer risk is affirmed over the defendants’ arguments that the District Court erred in admitting testimony on specific causation from plaintiff’s expert witness and that the plaintiff’s claim was preempted, that she failed to prove causation and that her claim was barred by the statute of limitations.

(2) Where the District Court did not abuse its discretion in striking much of plaintiff’s expert witness testimony for failure to link the testimony to FDA regulations, the grant of summary judgment for Upjohn is affirmed on the issue of punitive damages in a products liability trial linking two drug manufacturers’ products to breast cancer, but evidence against Wyeth could allow a jury to find that the company was guilty of malicious conduct in trying to convey that there was no definitive link between its product and breast cancer and the defendant’s documents could be construed as attempts to undermine scientific studies, so there was sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude that the company acted with reckless disregard to the risk of injury, and a new trial is granted on the issue of punitive damages only against Wyeth. Judgment is affirmed in part; vacated in part and remanded for new trial.