Last week, in Wyeth v. Levine, a case closely watched by industry and mass tort counsel across the country, the United States Supreme Court ruled on a key preemption issue and decided not to grant sweeping immunity to drug manufacturers. The Court rejected Wyeth’s claim that it could not be sued if a product and its label had been approved by the FDA.
Today, the Court summarily vacated the Third Circuit’s decision in Colacicco v. Apotex , which held that consumers’ claims against manufacturers of antidepressants were preempted. Colaciccohas now been remanded for further proceedings in light of Wyeth v. Levine. In a related legislative development, last week the Medical Device Safety Act was introduced in the Senate by Senators Kennedy and Leahy (S. 540) and in the House by Representatives Waxman and Pallone (HR 1346).
The proposed legislation is designed to restore the rights of victims of faulty medical devices which have been threatened by the Supreme Court’s preemption decision in Riegel v. Medtronic. Hopefully, this recent Supreme Court activity and legislative action will collectively put an end to the preemption attack on our tort system.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
