Merck Fosamax Suits Not Barred, Professor, Ex-FDA Officials Say

Merck & Co. should face reinstated litigation by hundreds of Fosamax users who allege the osteoporosis drug caused thighbone fractures, former FDA officials and a medical school professor told the Third Circuit.

Federal drug labeling law doesn’t preempt the suits because the Food and Drug Administration didn’t review the warning the plaintiffs sought, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, former acting commissioner, said in a friend-of-the-court filing to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The plaintiffs suffered fractures before 2010. They allege the drugmaker didn’t timely warn that Fosamax could cause atypical femur fractures, which are thighbone breaks that ...