Drug Makers Must Instruct Doctors on How to Mitigate Risks, Ala. High Court Rules

ATLANTA — A majority of the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that prescription drug manufacturers not only have a duty to warn doctors of a prescription drug’s risks, but must also provide instructions about how to mitigate those risks.

In answering two certified questions in a case targeting Shire’s colitis drug Lialda, the majority found Sept. 30 there is nothing in the Alabama learned intermediary doctrine that would prevent a plaintiff from asserting a claim alleging that a failure to provide adequate monitoring instructions violates the manufacturer’s duty to warn.

Mark Blackburn was prescribed Lialda in November 2013 to …