Fifth Circuit Remands Drugmaker Defense in Failure-to-Warn Case

Manufacturers of a chemotherapy drug will get another chance to argue claims it didn’t have newly acquired information to warn individuals that its product may cause chemotherapy-induced alopecia.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in an opinion May 24 vacated and remanded an order from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in a case on whether federal law preempts plaintiffs’ state law failure-to-warn claims against drugmakers Hospira Inc., Hospira Worldwide LLC, and Accord Healthcare, which manufacture the chemotherapy drug docetaxel.

Plaintiffs in a multidistrict litigation took docetaxel as part of their treatment ...