Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/novartis-properly-warned-about-bone-drug-zometa-s-risks-lawyer-tells-jury.html
Novartis Properly Warned About Bone Drug Zometa’s Risks, Lawyer Tells Jury
By Thom Weidlich - May 25, 2011 12:18 PM ET
Novartis AG (NOVN), Europe’s second-biggest drugmaker by sales, properly warned a Rhode Island man that Zometa, its bone-strengthening drug for cancer patients, could cause jaw damage, a company lawyer argued at the end of a trial.
Karlene Hogan sued Novartis in 2006 claiming her late husband, Timothy Hogan, developed so-called jaw death as a result of getting Zometa injections, according to the complaint. Hogan’s case is the fourth to go to trial over Zometa and Aredia, another Novartis bone-strengthening drug.
“The labels included the risks that were known and knowable at that time,” Bruce Berger, a lawyer for Novartis, told jurors in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, today in his closing argument.
Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, faces about 700 suits over the two medicines. The Hogan case is the fourth to go to trial. In November, a federal jury in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, ruled that Novartis should pay more than $12.8 million to a North Carolina woman’s family over claims Zometa and Aredia damaged her jaw. The award was reduced under state law to $1.26 million, including interest.
Other Cases
In October, a New Jersey jury rejected a woman’s claims that Aredia and Zometa caused her jaw deterioration. In October 2009, a Montana jury ordered Novartis to pay $3.2 million in damages to a cancer patient who made the same claims over the medicines.
If the jury rules against the company in the Hogan case, damages will be determined later. There is no possibility of punitive damages in the case.