The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Aug. 22 that hundreds of failure-to-warn claims against makers of generic Reglan—which is used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease—are not pre-empted by federal law.
In a 5-0 ruling in In re Reglan Litigation, the court refused to overturn two lower court rulings that said approximately 650 pending lawsuits consolidated in Middlesex County Superior Court as mass tort claims will be allowed to proceed.
In their lawsuits, the plaintiffs allege the generic manufacturers of the drug, known pharmaceutically as metoclopramide, failed to update their warning labels after 2004, when the brand-name manufacturers issued warnings about the dangers of taking the drug for an extended period of more than 12 weeks.
"Had defendants provided the same labeling as the brand-name manufacturers as required by federal law, defendants would have enjoyed a safe harbor," wrote Justice Barry Albin for the court. "As alleged, defendants' inadequate labeling breached a duty of care under the New Jersey Products Liability Act."
The plaintiffs' lead attorney, Louis Bograd, said he was "obviously pleased" with the ruling.
"The case has been moving through the appellate courts for years, and now we are going to be able to present our cases in the trial court," said Bograd, of the Washington, D.C., office of Motley Rice.
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