Plaintiffs Failed to Establish Proximate Causation in Aredia/Zometa Case, Tenn. Federal Judge Rules

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A couple who accused Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NYSE: NVS) of failing to warn that Aredia/Zometa can cause osteonecrosis of the jaw did not establish that the allegedly inadequate warning proximately caused their injuries, a Tennessee federal judge has ruled, granting the drug maker summary judgment.

On Sept. 6, Judge Curtis Collier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee found the evidence shows that the treating physicians would have prescribed the drugs regardless of Novartis’s warnings.

Charlotte Payne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and Dr. Darrell Johnson prescribed her Aredia in …