Hoffman La-Roche Inc. v. Mason
34 Fla. L. Weekly D 2200 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009) (October)
A company appealed a jury verdict for the plaintiff in a products liability case, arguing that its motion for a directed verdict should have been granted. The plaintiff alleged that the company’s failure to warn physicians that their prescription drug could cause inflammatory bowel syndrome was a substantial contributing cause to his developing that disorder. The district court reversed that verdict on appeal. Under the “learned intermediary” doctrine, a prescription drug company has a duty to warn physicians, not patients. The plaintiff’s prescribing physician testified at trial that he would have prescribed the drug in question even with the warning that the plaintiff argued should have been given. Thus, the district court held that the evidence to show proximate cause between the lack of warning and the plaintiff suffering from IBS was insufficient.