Drug Product Liability

Liability effects on the economic performance of the pharmaceutical industry play a prominent role in the debate about the economic effects of product liability in the United States. The author analyzes incentive effects on company decisions, implications for economic outcomes such as drug safety and effectiveness, and suggests how public policy changes could mitigate liability-based sources of inefficient decisions of pharmaceutical companies.

This timely guide covers all aspects of litigation involving drugs, medical devices, vaccines and other FDA-regulated prescription products.

A collection of papers from the ninth Fulbright Colloquium held in September 1989. The papers compare legal practices and procedures in North America and Europe and the barriers to drug development caused by increased litigation in cases involving pharmaceutical products.

Each year, thousands of lawsuits are filed in federal and state courts seeking recovery from manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. These lawsuits include individual actions, actions consolidated into multidistrict litigation, and class actions. The litigation occasionally becomes life-threatening for the defendant corporations, and may breed a public relations nightmare, as occurred with Vioxx, breast implants, and fen-phen. Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy, by Mark Herrmann and David B. Alden, offers assistance to lawyers who practice in this high-stakes, high-profile, and rapidly-evolving area. The book's primary focus is to provide useful practice pointers and overall strategic guidance for attorneys in product liability litigation involving prescription drugs and medical devices. It will serve as an indispensable guide to handling such a case from pre-litigation through trial. The legal landscape in this important area is expected to shift as the Supreme Court's decisions in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. and Wyeth v. Levine are applied, and as the President and Congress address tort reform and other health care issues. Practitioners will need thoughtful, expert advice to navigate these changes.

3 Volumes; Looseleaf; updated with supplements & revisions.

The piecemeal developments in product liability reform in Europe have their origins in the tragic association of phocomelia in children with thalidomide in 1962. In many ways these events have continued to generate pressure for reform of product liability, especially for the victims of drug-induced injury. This monograph attempts to address the major problems that typify claims for drug-induced injury, as well as highlighting the complex interrelationship between liability exposure and drug regulation. While medicinal products are subject to strict liability under the product liability directive, the claimant may have considerable difficulty in establishing that the relevant product is defective and that it caused the damage. It may also be necessary to overcome the development risk defence where this is pleaded. The monograph addresses these problems on a comparative jurisprudential basis, and seeks to determine whether medicinal products should be treated as a special case in the field of product liability. It examines the role of epidemiological evidence in assessing causation in product liability cases concerning medicinal products in the light of recent developments in the UK Supreme Court, the United States, Canada and France. In particular, it addresses the difficulties in reconciling the standards of proof in law and science, including the theory that causation can be proved on the balance of probabilities by reference to the doubling of risk of injury. An important case study compares and contrasts the approaches of the UK and the US to the measles, mumps, rubella Litigation. The book also examines the question as to whether compliance with regulatory standards should protect pharmaceutical manufacturers from product liability suits. It seeks to support a via media whereby the victims of drug induced injury can receive justice, while at the same time encouraging drug safety and innovation in drug development.