U.S. Supreme Court preemption case: Wyeth v. Levine

SCOTUSBlog reports that the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in Wyeth v. Levine, no. 06-1249.  In Wyeth, the Court will address whether FDA approval of warning labels precludes consumers from bringing state-law tort claims against drug manufacturers for failure to adequately warn of a drug's risks.

The transcript of the oral argument is available at this link, and here is my prior coverage of a similar preemption case, Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 999 (2008), addressing medical devices.

UPDATE:  Dahlia Lithwick has an interesing article in Slate about the Wyeth argument.  Also, Law.com reports that "High Court Appears Torn Over Drug Labeling Case."  [Hat tip: How Appealing.]

Comments

[Stephen Dolle]

I agree with the conclusions published in Law.com that the Court will likely rule narrowly in favor of Wyeth in this case. It will no doubt leave open the door for subsequent challenges to test the boundaries of "FDA and mfr" drug labeling, where there will someday be a preemption finding as was seen in Riegel v Medtronic.

I can't help but wonder how 17200 claims could be used against medical manufacturers for false and misleading marketing activities. It could facilitate a simple assessment of fraud in the marketing of a product, without reliance on extensive expert testimony, as is needed in products liability and negligence, now preempted when the manufacturer obtains a PMA (Riegel v. Medtronic) from the FDA.

I am curious as to other's thoughts on the above.