Hubbard, et al. v. Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceutical, et al.
Overview
Hubbard, et al. v. Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceutical, et al. (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, December 22, 2020): The 11th Circuit affirmed the denial of a claim that Bayer did not give adequate warning that its birth control pills could lead to stroke. Karen Hubbard suffered a catastrophic stroke after taking Beyaz, a contraceptive marketed by Bayer. Bayer previously revised its warning labels for Beyaz to report that the drug poses a higher risk of blood clots which can cause strokes. Hubbard sued Bayer alleging that the company did not sufficiently warn about increased risk of blood clots. To prevail under Georgia law, an injured party must show a breach of a duty to warn that proximately caused the injury. A drug company’s duty to warn extends only to the prescribing physician, not to the user. Even if there was a breach of the duty to warn, Hubbard could not establish that it would have caused the physician to change his prescription of the drug. Read the decision here.
View all cases in the Judicial Trends in Public Health – January 15, 2021.