Unlike the Big Guy tonight, we here at the Drug and Device Law Blog do not distribute bags of toys. Throughout this annus horribilis, we’ve handed out plenty of veritable mixed bags. Langner v. Boston Sci. Corp., 2020 U.S. Dist. Lexis 222125 (D. Nebraska Oct. 1, 2020), is another such mixed bag. Langner
Learned Intermediary
Reviewing Pre-PREP Act Mass Vaccination Cases

Although as of yet the data has not been peer reviewed, or subjected to the necessary administrative and scientific scrutiny, there has been considerable recent good news regarding the efficacy of two COVID-19 vaccines, being developed by Pfizer and Moderna, respectively.
It is now more likely than ever that within a few months the…
When It’s Not Quite Physician Failure To Read

We have a long, 50-state survey post entitled “Don’t Forget About A Prescribing Physician’s Failure To Read Warnings,” about a subject as to which we feel strongly enough that we keep it updated on an ongoing basis. Its proposition is simple, and powerful: Under the learned intermediary rule, it is impossible to prove…
Learned Intermediary Rule and Failure to Depose Treater Combine to Clobber Iowa Pelvic Mesh Claims

Kelly v. Ethicon, Inc., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 191665 (N.D. Iowa Oct. 16, 2020), is a remanded pelvic mesh case. The complaint included the usual panoply of causes of action for negligence, strict liability, fraud, and breach of warranty. Failure to warn, as usual, was central to the plaintiff’s case.
During the years while…
Maryland Court Leaves Design Defect as Sole Surviving Claim

This blogger took last week off – from everything except some sand, the ocean, and drinks with little umbrellas. And books! Books set in the post-Civil War era (The Book of Lost Friends), in post-World War I (The Last Train to Key West), during World War II (The Only Woman…
Partial Preemption Win On Tenuous Claims

The order of operations can matter. Back in elementary school, you may have learned a mnemonic about somebody’s aunt to help you remember the right order for doing certain math problems. In computer programming, engineering, auto repair, surgery, and a myriad of other endeavors, you can get very different results if you take the same…
Robots, Recalls, and the Restatement

People have long been fascinated by robots. Way before the term was coined in a 1920 play or Isaac Asimov popularized it, there were stories about machines that acted like living things. The droids of Star Wars universe are famed for the likeability and pluck. However, there is still the specter that some of those…
Federal Court Refuses To Create New Exception To Pennsylvania’s Learned Intermediary Doctrine

There was a time when we posted frequently about attempts to impose liability for injuries allegedly caused by the use of a generic prescription drug. Much of the attention has been directed to trying to pin liability on the company that developed the drug originally, even when the plaintiff took another company’s generic version. When…
What Can You Make Out of This?

I can make a hat, a brooch, or a pterodactyl. Of course, that’s a famous line from the movie Airplane! But, it seems to have taken on a new meaning now that we aren’t out and about like we use to be. After work, weekends, before work, lunch hour. All of these used to be…
Generic Warning Case Barred by Learned Intermediary Doctrine

Nope, we didn’t bury the lead. Today we are talking about a generic, negligence per se, warnings case that wasn’t decided on preemption grounds. No Mensing. No Buckman. No preemption of any kind. Normally that would make us a little nervous, but no need. It was the learned intermediary doctrine’s day to be…