In the drug liability arena, the questions of federal pre-emption and generic drug maker liability arose in landmark rulings of 2008 and 2009. In November, the 8th Circuit revisited both issues in Mensing v. Wyeth.
In the pre-emption case Wyeth v. Levine, the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2009 rejected Wyeth’s defense that FDA approval of drug labeling pre-empted state failure-to-warn claims. The high court wrote that the pre-emption defense was a “cramped reading” of the FDA’s regulations concerning changes to drug labels.
