Drug and Device LawThis blog contains JIM BECK and MARK HERRMANN's personal views of various topics that arise in the defense of pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation. Our first post, dated October 2006, contains a disclaimer about the nature of this blog. Please read it, and understand that you are accepting its terms, before reading any of our posts.Potential Uses of Genetic Evidence to Prove Causation and Exposure in Toxic Tort Litigation- September 8, 2008 This guest post was written by J.C. McElveen of Jones Day and Alice Suh, a student at Georgetown Law School who was a summer associate at Jones Day this year. J.C. and Alice get all of the credit for this post; we had nothing to do with it: Dr. Victor McCusick died several weeks ago. One of his obituaries said that, after medical school, he thought about practicing cardiology, but he was more interested in the newly emerging field of genetics. Though the scientific community has a great deal.http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/potential-uses-of-genetic-evidence-to.html Zyprexa Third Party Payor Class Certified- September 5, 2008 In the Zyprexa MDL, Judge Jack Weinstein has just issued his order certifying a class of third party payors -- insurance companies and the like -- who allegedly overpaid for prescriptions of Zyprexa.Judge Weinstein declined to certify a class of individuals who bought Zyprexa.The case is In re Zyprexa Products Liability Litigation, 04-MD-1596, slip op. (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 5, 2008).The opinion is nearly 300 pages long. We have it in our hands, but haven't yet read it. Here's a link to the decision.http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/zyprexa-third-party-payor-class.html Preemption And Guerilla Warfare- September 4, 2008 The Legal Intelligencer has a story today about the preemption loss in Knipe v. SmithKline Beecham. Since that adverse decision has made its way into the legal version of mainstream media, that means, under our self-imposed guideline of first, do no harm to the defense position in such matters, were now free to blog about it.These restrictions also mean that well probably never be the first to mention quite a few adverse cases. For instance, we saw Knipe on Pharmalot last week. But our...http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/preemption-and-guerilla-warfare.html We Never Get Bored: More On Pre-Service Removals- September 3, 2008 Some blogs are all over Hurricane Gustav.Some are investigating Sarah Palin.Some analyze critical issues of the day.And you've come here, where it's wall-to-wall coverage of whether defendants can remove an action in which a non-resident defendant has been named in a complaint, but not yet served with process.(We're not sure whether that reflects more poorly on you or on us, but we welcome your company in our little world.)(Not only that -- just think of the traffic we'll get on our blog today,.http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/we-never-get-bored-more-on-pre-service.html The Multidistrict Litigation Process- September 2, 2008 When you play regularly in the MDL sandbox, you become accustomed to receiving the frantic call: "Plaintiffs just filed a motion with the MDL Panel to coordinate our cases! What do we do"Calm down.There are a bunch of strategic things to consider, and there are ways to predict whether the Panel will grant the motion to coordinate. (See, for example, our earlier posts on that topic here and here.)And the rules are pretty straightforward. They're right there on your credenza in your Federal...http://druganddevicelaw.blogspot.com/2008/09/multidistrict-litigation-process.html |