11th Cir. Affirms Learned Intermediary Ruling in Prozac Case

ATLANTA - The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld an award of summary judgment to Eli Lilly in a Prozac suicide case, agreeing that the plaintiff failed to prove proximate causation based on the decision by the decedent's doctor to prescribe the drug. Porter v. Eli Lilly and Co., No. 08-11335 (11th Cir.).

The appeals panel held Sept. 9 that without evidence that the physician would not have prescribed Prozac had it been accompanied by stronger suicide warnings, it cannot be proven that the drug proximately caused the death of Leland Porter.

Porter's wife, Dawn, sued Eli Lilly …