Poised on the edge of a legal precipice are patients' rights as to whether or not they can sue pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers that have been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. In April 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of medical device manufacturer instead of the patient (Riegel v. Medtronic) because the high court determined that a product-liability lawsuit against Medtronic in a state court was preempted because the device had received FDA approval.
This is bad news for patients as they have no legal recourse against defective medical devices or pharmaceutical drugs that are rushed to market without adequately tested pharmaceutical drugs.
The next big decision hanging in the air is Wyeth v. Levine. The Supreme Court will decide the fate of a patient who lost her arm after an injection of Wyeth's drug Phenergan. Can she sue for damages? The Court will decide whether preemption of state tort litigation is
implied by the law, even though it is not explicitly stated.
Don't you think someone has to be responsible for loss of a limb from a pharmaceutical drug?
