Learned Intermediary Doctrine Bars Avandia Bone Fracture Claims, Pa. Federal Judge Rules

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania judge has dismissed an Avandia bone fracture action, ruling that all of the claims are defeated by the learned intermediary doctrine because the prescribing doctor testified that he would still prescribe the drug even if he had been provided with a different warning.

On March 24, Judge Cynthia M. Rufe of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found that all of the claims sound in failure to warn and are therefore barred by the doctrine.

Linda Schatz’s doctor, Dr. Scott McKimm, prescribed her Avandia to treat her diabetes, which she took from …