Design Defect Claim Against Generic Reglan Makers Preempted, Miss. Judge Rules

Generics

GREENVILLE, Miss. — A design defect claim against the makers of generic Reglan is federally preempted because it is grounded in a failure-to-warn theory, a Mississippi judge has ruled, finding the claim is not saved by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett.

On Sept. 26, Judge Sharion Aycock of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi rejected the plaintiff’s assertion that the claim is based on consumer expectation, rather than a risk-utility analysis, therefore the generic defendants would not be required to change the drug labels in order to comply …