Product Liability & Mass Torts Digest

The California Supreme Court has recognized a new path for plaintiffs to prove causation in failure-to-warn cases against manufacturers of prescription drugs and medical devices. Under the learned intermediary doctrine, such manufacturers have a duty to warn physicians of the risks associated with their products but do not have a duty to warn patients.

A few weeks ago, the Ninth Circuit certified a significant legal question to the California Supreme Court, the resolution of which may have lasting impact on the learned intermediary doctrine under California law. The question posed: is a plaintiff required to show that stronger warnings would have changed the doctor’s conduct in prescribing the product (the common view on causation in the failure-to-warn context), or does it suffice to show that the doctor would have communicated those stronger warnings to the patient, and a reasonable patient would have declined the treatment after receiving them?