Yes, we are the Drug and Device Law Blog. Yes, we at times stray into other areas when we think a decision has application to our DDL world. Yes, today’s case is about a “drug” product. No, today’s case is not about a drug for humans. In fact, it really isn’t about a drug at
Economic Loss
Another Preemption Win Involving An Economic Loss Class Action And An OTC Drug

As regular blog readers know, we love a clean grant of a motion to dismiss on preemption grounds. They are relatively common, so it sometimes puzzles us that the plaintiffs’ bar keeps filing plainly preempted claims.
Perhaps some of these plainly preempted lawsuits get filed because the express preemption provision of the FDCA related to…
Questionable California Cough Medicine Consumer Class Lingers

We have seen a number of consumer fraud class action cases brought over a range of fairly ticky tacky issues about OTC drugs and consumer products. California law and courts have been fairly favorable to these cases, which follow a pattern of a test plaintiff seeking to represent some large class because (s)he claims to…
Federal Court Makes Hash out of Ohio Product Liability Act
What’s In a Name?

“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” William Shakespeare uses this line in his play Romeo and Juliet to convey that the naming of things is irrelevant. We may not always agree with that (for instance, this blogger is Washington Football Fan – enough said). But when…
Learned Intermediary – Not Just For Failure to Warn

Coming off Super Bowl weekend, we have commercials on the brain. The big game has given us some of the most iconic ads and mascots of all time. From Budweiser alone we have the Frogs, Wassup!, and the Clydesdales. This year’s ads were full of celebrities, but that’s nothing new. McDonald’s had the Showdown with…
Truthful Statements Cannot Form Basis for Consumer Fraud Claims

This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
One would assume the title of this post to be a given. Afterall, the crux of a fraud claim is that the consumer was deceived or misled in some way. Therefore, truthful and accurate statements should not be grounds for consumer fraud claims. But…
Zantac Chronicles V – Medical Monitoring and the Wheels Coming Off

Still more Zantac MDL dismissal orders.
Today’s installment grants dismissal of the plaintiffs’ medical monitoring claims, and also sheds some light on the questionable factual basis of everything being asserted in this MDL. As we’ve pointed out in our prior posts (such as this one), plaintiffs allege that the active ingredient in this drug…
A Better Valsartan Decision

This post is from the non-Reed Smith side of the blog.
We posted last week about In re Valsartan, Losartan, & Irbesartan Products Liability Litigation, 2020 WL 7418006 (D.N.J. Dec. 18, 2020), a decision that came in just time to take a sport on our Worst of 2020 post. Just as we were…