Some Tepezza Design Claims Survive Horizon’s Preemption Argument

Tepezza plaintiffs who link the thyroid eye disease drug to hearing loss advanced claims alleging that manufacturer Horizon Therapeutics USA Inc. should have designed a safer medication before it sought marketing approval.

Federal law doesn’t preempts these claims, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said.

Lawsuits by Cynthia Williams and others were combined in multidistrict litigation before Judge Thomas M. Durkin, who advanced their “pre-approval” design defect claims Nov. 3. The court used Williams’ case to address the issue for the MDL.

Williams conceded that “impossibility preemption” principles bar claims that Horizon should have redesigned ...