Failure-To-Warn Claims Against Motrin Makers Not Preempted, Judge Rules

CHICAGO - State law failure-to-warn and negligent design claims brought against the makers of Motrin and Children's Motrin are not federally preempted, an Illinois federal judge has ruled, explaining that enhancement of the drugs' warning labels would not have rendered the drugs "misbranded." Newman v. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, et al., No. 10-1541 (N.D. Ill.).

On Jan. 9, Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois further held that the Food and Drug Administration's 2006 refusal to require drug makers to add references to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis in OTC ibuprofen labels …