Supreme Court Decision On Wyeth V. Levine A Victory For Patients And Doctors

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 05 Mar 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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The California Medical Association hailed today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a $6.7 million judgment against the Wyeth pharmaceutical company for failing to provide adequate warning about the dangers of administering the anti-nausea drug Phenegran.

CMA argued in favor of the judgment and against overturning it in an amicus brief filed on the case.

"In order to best serve patients, physicians must have complete and truthful information about the risks and benefits of the drugs they prescribe," said Francisco Silva, CMA vice president and general counsel. "This ruling protects patient safety and allows doctors to do their jobs."

In its brief, CMA disputed Wyeth's argument that the company was not liable because its warning label was approved by the federal government.

"Because preempting failure-to-warn claims would make the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval the final word on a drug's safety, it would significantly weaken manufacturers' incentives to conduct new safety studies, to monitor their drugs in the marketplace, to improve them post-approval, and to supply FDA and doctors with new or revised safety information," the brief said.

"Moreover, it would deprive physicians of the important drug safety information that has unfortunately come to light only in failure-to-warn litigation. In the absence of viable alternative sources for this information, physicians would be unable to provide patients with the best possible care and patient safety would be at risk."

The California Medical Association represents more than 35,000 physicians in all modes of practice and specialties. CMA is dedicated to the health of all patients in California.

The California Medical Association