Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-06/novartis-wins-trial-over-jaw-injury-blamed-on-drugs.html
Novartis Wins Trial Over Jaw Injury Blamed on Drugs
October 06, 2010, 7:47 PM EDTBy David Voreacos and Jef Feeley
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- A New Jersey jury ruled that Novartis AG, the Swiss drugmaker, provided adequate warnings about the risk of its bone-strengthening medicines, rejecting a lawsuit by a woman who claimed the drugs destroyed her jaw.
Jane Bessemer, 73, sued Novartis after developing jawbone damage while taking Aredia and Zometa to slow bone loss as she battled breast cancer. Jurors in state court in New Brunswick, New Jersey, deliberated less than three hours today before finding that Novartis provided proper warnings to Bessemer’s doctors about jaw problems linked to Aredia and Zometa.
“There is not anything in this record to show that Novartis deliberately concealed anything,” Joe Hollingsworth, a company attorney, said in his closing argument today.
Bessemer’s suit was the second product-liability case to go to trial over the bone-strengthening treatments, which had 2009 sales of $1.5 billion, according to Novartis’ annual report. Both drugs are still on the market. Last year, a Montana jury ordered Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis to pay $3.2 million in damages to a woman who blamed the drug for damaging her jaw.
Gloria Vanderham, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for Novartis, didn’t immediately return a telephone call for comment about the verdict.
Bessemer, of Brielle, New Jersey, sought unspecified damages for her pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. Her husband, Allan, 75, sought damages for his loss of consortium, society and services.