Today’s Daily Journal (subscription required) reports (at page 2) that the Judiciary Committee of the California Assembly yesterday passed a bill meant to eliminate the learned intermediary doctrine and to make drug manufacturers responsible for giving warnings to patients using prescription medical products. The bill now moves to the Assembly floor:
“The California Assembly’s Judiciary Committee approved a bill Tuesday that would make drug companies solely responsible for warning consumers about potentially harmful prescriptions that are marketed directly to the public.
“The legislation, AB 2690, is heavily favored by plaintiffs’ lawyers. But it has met with strong opposition from pharmaceutical companies, which claim the measure would do nothing other than create a slew of baseless litigation against them.”
The Civil Justice Association of California opposes the bill.
And, if anyone cares, we haven’t studied the bill, but we oppose the concept.