Photo of Eric Alexander

This post comes from the non-RS side of the Blog.

Prescription medications for psychiatric conditions fill an important role in modern healthcare.  They tend to have labels with lots of information about the risks of various emotional, psychological, and neuroreceptor-mediated conditions, including worsening of the underlying conditions being treated, interactions with other medications or substances

Photo of Michelle Yeary

When we last checked in on the Taxotere MDL back in January, we described the court’s brand and generic preemption rulings as chronological, not contradictory. At the time, that seemed like the most charitable reading.

The court had concluded that certain medical literature—the 2003 and 2006 studies—qualified as “newly acquired information” for the brand manufacturer

Photo of Michelle Yeary

If you ever needed proof that timing is everything, the Taxotere litigation has you covered.

Last month, a court denied summary judgment to the brand manufacturer, finding that it allegedly acquired “newly acquired information” post-dating Taxotere’s original FDA approval in 1996. This month, however, the very same court granted summary judgment to the 

Photo of Michelle Yeary

There is a special kind of optimism—some might call it magical thinking—that animates the modern failure-to-warn claim against prescription drug manufacturers. It goes something like this: Yes, the FDA-approved label warned about the exact risk that happened to me, but the manufacturer still failed to warn.

Which is a pretty accurate summary of plaintiff’s argument

Photo of Eric Hudson

We’ve been defending drug and device litigation for a long time, and we’ve seen many plaintiffs who experienced real injuries. Those of us at the blog, our colleagues at other defense firms, and our clients are genuinely sympathetic to injuries a plaintiff actually experienced. Many plaintiffs we’ve encountered also endured terrible circumstances earlier in their lives. Some of those can be heartbreaking. Defending cases on the basis that our clients’ products did not cause the injury or that the injury was a known and warned of risk doesn’t mean the defense bar looks askance at plaintiffs and their experiences.  But, when we see a case involving a syringe needle purportedly propelled into a plaintiff’s derrière, some of us might exhibit a moment of minor moral weakness and include the above title in a blog post. Mea culpa.

Today’s case, Rudzinskas v. Retractable Techs., Inc., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 191860 (S.D. Ga. Sept. 29, 2025), involves a type of syringe that automatically retracts once the plunger handle is fully depressed.  Plaintiff’s husband regularly administered vitamin B-12 shots to her and had been doing so for six or seven years. Plaintiff claimed that, on one of those occasions, the needle from defendant’s syringe “shot into [her] like a slingshot.” Id. at *4.  Plaintiff went to the hospital and an ultrasound suggested the needle was embedded in the plaintiff’s buttock. Plaintiff underwent surgery to have the needle removed, but the surgeon was not able to extract it. 

Continue Reading A Real Pain in the  . . .