Federal Preemption Impacts Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Litigation

Continuing a trend limiting suits available to plaintiffs alleging personal injury from medical devices and pharmaceuticals, two recent decisions have upheld federal preemption of state law-based claims.

The Second Circuit has now joined at least five others in concluding that a PMA-approved medical device manufacturer was immune from a suit brought on behalf of a man who died when a balloon catheter inserted to open a clogged coronary artery burst as a result of overinflation.

In another decision, finding persuasive the FDA's interpretation of the preemptive scope of its regulatory powers, and giving effect to a controversial preamble to its new drug labeling regulations, Eastern District of Pennsylvania District Judge Michael M. Baylson dismissed a case brought by a plaintiff whose wife committed suicide while on an antidepression drug.