A Texas law firm is targeting generic drug giant Mylan Inc., along with other pharmaceutical companies, in product liability lawsuits related to the manufacture of pain patches.
The lawsuits involve the powerful painkiller fentanyl, which is applied to the skin in a patch for the slow release of the medication. In the Mylan lawsuits, the plaintiffs attribute 28 deaths to the patches.
Mylan makes the patches at its plant in St. Albans, Vt., which is operated by Mylan subsidiary Mylan Technologies Inc.
“We think there was a manufacturer defect,” according to the plaintiffs’ attorney. “What we don’t know is the exact nature of the defect.”
Mylan has denied liability in court filings.
The Mylan lawsuits are among some 60 similar cases the law firm is pursuing against other makers of the opioid patches, including Johnson & Johnson’s Alza Corp.
But the fentanyl lawsuits are being filed at a time when the Food & Drug Administration has been looking into allegations of compliance problems at a separate Mylan plant in Morgantown, W.Va. The FDA probe was prompted by a July 26 story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that described how workers routinely overrode computer-generated warnings about potential manufacturing problems, which could affect drug quality.
Among the most recent fentanyl lawsuits against Mylan was one filed in May in federal court in West Virginia by Lynn Woodcock over the 2007 death of her 46-year-old husband, Thomas. The lawsuit asserts that Woodcock, a mechanic until he hurt his back while changing a tire in 1998, was prescribed a patch for relief of chronic back pain on May 8, 2007. The lawsuit says he died two days later with a lethal dose of fentanyl in his bloodstream and with one of the patches on his body.
Fentanyl is at least 80 times stronger than morphine, and the FDA issued patient warnings for the patches in 2005 and 2007. But the FDA has not cited Mylan’s Vermont plant for manufacturing problems in recent years, according to agency spokesman Christopher Kelly.
If you or a family member has been personally injured because of the fault of someone else: by the use of dangerous drugs, bad products, or toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Defective Drugs Product Liability Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.