Cleveland, OHA US Appeals Court decision to reinstate the claim against the makers of the controversial
diet drug Redux is a significant victory for the family of the late Mary Buchanan and the rights of countless other consumers, according to the attorney for the family of the late Mary Buchanan. "I hope this decision means we are one step closer to the Buchanan family getting the justice they deserve," says Ben Anderson from Anderson Law Offices in Cleveland.
The wrongful death claim against Wyeth has now been remanded for trial—some seven years after Mary Buchanan's death and more than a dozen years after the 66-year-old nurse took the diet drug Redux to help control her weight.
The hardworking and dedicated nurse from Maple Heights, Ohio, died from primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), a fatal condition linked to the use of Redux, in 2003.
The Appeals Court's recent decision is the first major court decision since the Wyeth v. Levine Supreme Court ruling that found that Federal regulatory approval of a drug does not protect manufacturers from liability under state law.
"This clarifies for us in the post-Wyeth v. Levine era what types of claims are viable, and always were viable and we believe still should be, and those are negligence claims," says Anderson, who has considerable experience in handling Redux cases since dangers around Wyeth's diet drug began in the late 1990s. "You must disclose safety risks to the public so you don't have thousands of people being injured or killed by a drug that never should have been on the market in the first place," says Anderson.
Failure to succeed at the Federal Court level would have been a blow to the Buchanan case and countless other consumer law cases. "They would have had significant rights unavailable to them and foreclosed when it comes to right to seek injury redressed that is caused by drug companies," says Anderson.
"Drug companies are now on notice that they cannot lie to and conceal from the FDA crucial information in the pre-approval process," says Anderson, "and then expect to be held harmless once their drugs are responsible for causing pain, suffering and, as in Mrs. Buchanan's case, death."
Ben Anderson is a founding member of the Anderson Law Firm. The firm focuses on medical malpractice, personal injury, pharmaceutical and medical device litigation and class actions. Anderson was general counsel for the most seriously affected plaintiffs in the Multi District Litigation against Phen-Fen. He has also represented a number of people in separate litigations against Wyeth and its Redux/Phen Fen drug.