Bayer Must Keep Defending Women’s Essure Claims in Indiana

Bayer Corp. failed to get an early exit from a lawsuit by more than 30 women alleging harm from its Essure contraceptive device, under a ruling from an Indiana appeals court.

Rene Leach and others raised non-preempted, “parallel” claims that Essure was defectively manufactured, the Indiana Court of Appeals said.

Federal medical device law bars most state-law claims against makers of devices, like Essure, that underwent the Food and Drug Administration’s premarket approval process.

Claims against manufacturers can survive preemption if there is a state-law duty that parallels a federal requirement applicable to the device.

The plaintiffs here alleged that ...