Calif. Asks Innovator Drug Brands To Do The Impossible

Law360, New York (March 16, 2016, 12:30 PM EDT) -- Eight years ago, in Conte v. Wyeth, the California Court of Appeals shocked brand prescription drug manufacturers when it held that they could be liable for injuries caused by generic versions of their medications — an approach often called "innovator liability."[1] In 2012, the California Supreme Court raised hopes for Conte's early demise when, in an industrial product case, it signaled its disapproval of holding defendants liable for someone else's product. Instead, on March 9, a Court of Appeals panel extended the "innovator liability" doctrine to a manufacturer that had sold its interests in the medication in 2001, six years before the prescriptions at issue. In T.H. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., the court exposed the brand manufacturer to liability for a label that it was powerless to change....

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