Fighting a Tort Plague
Should a drug company be punished for following FDA rules?
The Supreme Court’s inconsistent rulings on federal pre-emption of state law have often produced unintended side effects. On Monday the Justices hear a case that could partly remedy one of their muddled decisions that sanctioned state lawsuits against drug manufacturers for label warnings approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
In Merck v. Albrecht, plaintiffs are suing the drug maker for not adequately warning patients of upper-leg fracture risk from its osteoporosis drug Fosamax. Merck’s proposal to include a warning...