Defeating Economic Loss Claims In Pharma Class Actions

Where product liability actions or government investigators have targeted a prescription drug, class actions follow alleging that patients are entitled to a refund of what they paid for the medicine. The theory of these parasitic class actions is that the manufacturer misrepresented the safety or efficacy of the medicine, thereby violating consumer protection statutes.

But a patient should not get her money back if the medicine worked and caused no physical injury. Or should a patient get her money back where she cannot show that, but for the misrepresentations, her doctor would have prescribed a safer, cheaper alternative.

Two recent decisions dismissing Avandia class actions illustrate these principles.¹