Generic Reglan Lawsuit Dismissed by Judge
A recent decision in a generic Reglan lawsuit has caused a fury among other potential plaintiffs looking to be compensated for injuries they suffered after taking the controversial acid reflux medication because they may feel that this decision could affect their own cases.
This particular generic Reglan lawsuit was originally filed on April 30, 2008, by Susan Schrock, and was recently dismissed by Chief Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Defending her decision, LaGrange cited a Supreme Court ruling made earlier this year, which basically ruled that generic drug manufacturers could not be held liable for injuries caused by generic versions of their name-brand counterparts.
This decision may not affect other generic Reglan lawsuits, since another, earlier decision in a Philadelphia case had Court Judge Sandra Mazer Moss denying a dismissal request filed by the generic manufacturers in a mass tort. As for this recent case, Schrock filed her lawsuit after she was diagnosed with tardive dystonia, which is another movement disorder similar to tardive dyskinesia (a common adverse side effect known to be caused by Reglan).
Conditions like cervical dystonia, tardive dyskinesia and tardive dystonia have long been linked to Reglan use, and have caused thousands of lawsuits against manufacturers. These movement disorders are characterized by patients suffering from Parkinson’s-like symptoms including involuntary movements of the extremities, lip smacking, grimacing and eye twitching. The condition is often permanent.
While this dismissal may have some plaintiffs worried about their own generic cases, it is unnecessary since each case is decided upon on its own merit, and there are many judges that disagreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the “Pliva V. Mensing” case that allowed generic drug companies to potentially escape liability in the first place. In fact, when the high court handed down its ruling, it was clear at the time that some of the justices disagreed with the decision; some even made public statements against the decision at the time. So far, judges in the states of Alabama, South Carolina, Iowa, Nevada and Vermont have already issued decisions that were in favor of the plaintiffs in their cases against generic drug makers. This shows that this one dismissal doesn’t necessarily mean much in regards to future generic Reglan cases.
