Supreme Court’s Wyeth ruling “a major setback” for drug industry.
Supreme Court’s Wyeth ruling “a major setback” for drug industry.
In a story that received coverage from many news sources, the New York Times (3/5, A1, Liptak) reports on its front page, “In a major setback for business groups that had hoped to build a barrier against injury lawsuits seeking billions of dollars, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said state juries may award damages for harm from unsafe drugs even though their manufacturers had satisfied federal regulators.” The decision “could have significant implications beyond drug manufacturing” and “many companies have sought tighter federal regulation in recent years in part to shield themselves from litigation.”
The Washington Post (3/5, A2, Barnes) reports, “The 6 to 3 vote in the court’s most anticipated business decision of the term was a rejection of Bush administration policy and a major setback to pharmaceutical companies, which face thousands of lawsuits in state courts from patients who allege that drugs have harmed them.”
The AP (3/5) reports, “The Supreme Court” upheld “a $6.7 million jury award to a musician who lost her arm to gangrene following an injection.” The plaintiff, “Diana Levine of Vermont once played the guitar and piano professionally” and “her right arm was amputated after she was injected with Phenergan, an anti-nausea medicine made by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, using a method that brings rapid relief, but with grievous risks if improperly administered.” There were many other outlets that covered the Wyeth ruling, including: BusinessWeek (3/5, Johnson), CBS News (3/5, Cohen), the San Francisco Chronicle (3/5, Egelko), the Wall Street Journal (3/5, Bravin), the Legal Times (3/5, Mauro) reports, the AP (3/5, Curran), the Legal Intelligencer (3/4, Passarella), the Los Angeles Times (3/5, Savage), Dow Jones Newswires (3/5, Anderson), USA Today (3/5, Biskupic, Appleby), UPI (3/4) ABC World News (3/4, story 9, 0:30, Gibson), CBS Evening News (3/4, story 4, 2:00, Couric) and NBC Nightly News (3/4, story 5, 2:05, Williams).
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