Taxotere Lawsuit News Archives

Taxotere Lawsuit News: Federal Litigation to Convene Five Bellwether Trials Starting May 2019

The federal court overseeing thousands of Taxotere lawsuits filed over the chemotherapy drugs’ alleged potential to cause permanent hair loss will convene five bellwether trials beginning in May 2019.

According to an Order issued in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, on June 13th, the first trial will be convened May 13th-24th. The case selected for trial will be chosen from a pool of lawsuits filed on behalf of 4 Louisiana residents:

Durden, Antoinette 2:16-cv-16635
Earnest, Barbara 2:16-cv-17144
Francis, Tanya 2:16-cv-17410
Tuyes, Lisa 2:16-cv-15473
The remaining trials will be convened on the following dates:

September 16-27, 2019
January 27-February 7, 2020
May 11-22, 2020
September 14-25, 2020
Taxotere Hair Loss Allegations
Taxotere (docetaxel) is a chemotherapy drug marketed by Sanofi-Aventis. It was initially approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996 to treat breast cancer. However, its approved indications have since been expanded to include the treatment of head and neck cancer, gastric cancer, prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

The first generic version of docetaxel was approved by the FDA in 2010.

Temporary hair loss is a common side effect of most chemotherapy agents. However, Taxotere hair loss plaintiffs allege that alopecia associated with docetaxel is far more likely to be permanent compared to equally effective alternative medications.

Among other things, their complaints note that the European medical community was informed of the potential for docetaxel-induced permanent hair loss in 2005, while the Canadian Taxotere label underwent a similar modification in 2012. However, mention of this potential side effect was not added to the U.S. label until 2015.

What are Bellwether Trials?

More than 8,700 Taxotere lawsuits are currently pending in the Eastern District of Louisiana, where all federally-filed hair loss claims involving the drug have been centralized in a multidistrict litigation to facilitate coordinated discovery and other pretrial proceedings.

The litigation’s bellwether trials are intended to serve as test cases, and their verdicts could provide insight into how other juries will decide similar Taxotere lawsuits.

While there is no guarantee, bellwether trial verdicts also sometimes help pave the way for a global settlement of all claims pending in a multidistrict litigation.

Taxotere Lawsuit News

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Hundreds Seek To Centralize NJ Taxotere Hair Loss Suits

As a growing number of Taxotere lawsuits continue to be filed by women nationwide, alleging that Sanofi-Aventis failed to warn users of the breast cancer drug that they may be left with permanent hair loss, both plaintiffs and the drug maker indicate that they are in favor of centralizing the cases before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

Taxotere (docetaxel) is a high potency taxane-based cancer drug, which was introduced by Sanofi-Aventis in 1996. While it was promoted as superior to existing low potency taxanes, such as Taxol, women have reported experiencing permanent hair loss problems from Taxotere.

While hair loss, or alopecia, is a common side effect of chemotherapy, it is usually temporary. According to allegations raised in Taxotere hair loss cases filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, Sanofi-Aventis knew that their treatment was no more effective than alternative breast cancer treatments, yet carries a substantial risk or permanent alopecia.

However, plaintiffs allege that false and misleading information was provided to consumers and physicians.

Taxotere Permanent Hair Loss

Plaintiffs maintain that Sanofi-Aventis knew or should have known about the link between Taxotere and hair loss problems that continue for years following treatment, yet placed their desire for profits before consumer safety, providing false and misleading information to the medical community in the United States.

However, in several other countries, Taxotere warnings have been updated to include information about the risk of permanent hair, but the same information was not provided to American women and doctors.

As early as 2005, studies have found that women face a substantial risk of permanent hair loss with Taxotere, including findings that indicate one out of every 10 patients treated with Taxotere suffered hair loss that lasted up to 10 years and five months following chemotherapy, and in some cases longer.

If the cases are centralized before one judge for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings, it is likely that a small group of cases will be prepared for early “bellwether” trials to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and expert testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

While the outcome of such early trials will not be binding in other cases, they may help the parties reach Taxotere settlements for women suffering permanent hair loss problems, avoiding the need for dozens of individual trials in courts throughout the U.S.

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