Pharmaceutical Drug Litigation Updates

Michigan law gives some lawsuit immunity to pharmaceutical companies

Quoted from http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/oakland_county/michigan-pharmaceutical-law-prevents-wife-from-suing-after-husbands-death-from-prescribed-drug

Michigan law gives some lawsuit immunity to pharmaceutical companies

Photographer: WXYZ

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Posted: 07/27/2012

• By: Kim Russell

 

Five years ago Sheila Muniz says her husband Eddie made a decision that would change her family forever. He asked a doctor for psoriasis medicine.

The doctor prescribed him Raptiva, a drug made by Genentech.

"His skin started to turn a bit of yellow, jaundiced. We went to our doctor, and then the emergency room. He never left," said Sheila Muniz.

Muniz says the drug shut down her husband's kidneys and liver.The previously healthy dad died at 38-years-old, weeks after starting the medication.

"There is no healing from this I will suffer from this until the day I die," said Sheila Muniz.

Eddie Muniz wasn't the only person who died after taking Raptiva. In 2009 the FDA sent out a statement announcing that the maker took the drug off the market because it was dangerous.

When Muniz tried to sue,several attorneys turned her away because she is from Michigan. Michigan law gives pharmaceutical companies immunity from lawsuits connected to FDA approved drugs.

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Roche Denies Settling Claims Over Genentech’s Raptiva Psoriasis Drug

Quoted from http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-24/roche-settles-raptiva-claims-plaintiffs-lawyer-says

Roche Denies Settling Claims Over Genentech’s Raptiva Psoriasis Drug

By Laurence Viele Davidson and Jef Feeley
January 24, 2012 2:23 PM EST

Roche Holdings AG (ROG) denied settling lawsuits that say its Raptiva psoriasis drug caused lethal infections and said it’s proceeding to the first trial of the claims in June.

Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, earlier said Roche’s Genentech unit had settled. He later called that statement “in error and wishful thinking.”

Genentech was sued in state court in California over allegations that Raptiva caused Stephen Johnson’s death. The 46- year-old Louisiana businessman took the drug to treat a skin condition. The Johnson family is seeking $15 million in compensatory damages along with “several hundred million dollars” in punitive damages, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

“Genentech has not settled the Stephen Johnson lawsuit,” Nadine Pinell, a spokeswoman for the South San Francisco, California-based company, said today in an e-mailed statement. “The trial in this matter is set to begin on June 4, 2012.”

Genentech began taking Raptiva off the U.S. and European markets in April 2009 after three psoriasis patients were diagnosed with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, a rare, incurable brain infection. The month before the withdrawal, Basel, Switzerland-based Roche completed a $46.8 billion buyout of the biotech company.

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Roche Settles Raptiva Claims, Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Says

Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-24/roche-settles-raptiva-claims-plaintiffs-lawyer-says.html

Roche Settles Raptiva Claims, Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Says

January 24, 2012, 10:03 AM EST

By Laurence Viele Davidson and Jef Feeley

 

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Roche Holdings AG settled lawsuits claiming its Raptiva psoriasis drug caused infections, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The lawyer, Mark Lanier, wouldn’t disclose the terms of the settlement today. Genentech withdrew the medication from the market almost three years ago.

Genentech, a unit of Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker Roche, was sued in state court in California over allegations that Raptiva caused Stephen Johnson’s death. The 46-year-old Louisiana businessman took the drug to treat a skin condition. That trial had been set to begin this month and was postponed last week to June, according to the case docket.

The Johnson family was seeking $15 million in compensatory damages along with “several hundred million dollars” in punitive damages, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Nadine O’Campo, a spokeswoman for South San Francisco, California-based Genentech, couldn’t be reached immediately before regular business hours to comment on any settlement.

Genentech began taking Raptiva off the U.S. and European markets in April 2009 after three psoriasis patients were diagnosed with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, a rare, incurable brain infection. The month before the withdrawal, Roche completed a $46.8 billion buyout of the biotech company.

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Roche Sued by Patient Claiming Cancer From Pulled Psoriasis Drug Raptiva

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-08/roche-sued-by-patient-claiming-cancer-from-pulled-psoriasis-drug-raptiva.html

Roche Sued by Patient Claiming Cancer From Pulled Psoriasis Drug Raptiva

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins - Jan 7, 2011 7:52 PM ET

Roche Holding AG’s Genentech Inc. was sued by a Texas psoriasis sufferer who alleges he developed lymphoma while taking Raptiva, a drug the company stopped selling in 2009 when studies linked it to a fatal brain infection.

Genentech, a unit of Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker Roche, began a phased withdrawal of Raptiva in April 2009 after three patients taking it were diagnosed in the preceding six- month period with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, a rare, incurable brain disease.

Houston-area psoriasis patient Cary Massa, 51, was diagnosed with classic Hodgkin’s lymphoma in March 2009, after taking Raptiva from February 2006 to January 2008, according to a complaint filed today in Houston federal court.

[Article continues at original source]