Is preemption dead?
The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday that a Vermont woman is allowed to sue Wyeth for failing to provide adequate safety warnings after she suffered injuries taking the drugmaker's Phenergan (promethazine).
The court decided that FDA oversight of drug labelling does not prevent the filing of state-level consumer liability lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers. Justice John Paul Stevens stated that "Wyeth has not persuaded us that failure-to-warn claims like [the Vermont case] obstruct the federal regulation of drug labelling."
The company was appealing a Vermont Supreme Court ruling which had awarded $6.7 million to the plaintiff, whose arm had to be amputated after she received an injection of Phenergan. Wyeth argued that it could not be held liable under state product-liability laws if its drug labels adhere to FDA requirements, and that it was not permitted to modify the label at will.
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