Learned Intermediary Rule Defeats Mississippi Lexapro Suicide Case, Federal Judge Rules

OXFORD, Miss. — The learned intermediary rule defeats claims that Forest Laboratories failed to adequately warn of the risk of suicidality posed by Lexapro, a Mississippi federal judge has ruled in awarding the drug maker summary judgment.

On April 6, Judge Michael P. Mills ruled that although the plaintiffs’ claims are not federally preempted, they failed to prove that the prescribing doctor would not have prescribed the drug to the decedent had he been provided with a different warning.

In 2004, Mississippi resident Leon Cross, 84, was scheduled to undergo a colectomy to deal with abdominal pain he had …