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Drug Companies New Liability Determinations

Abbott Laboratories sits in limbo with their pending suit over allegedly insufficient warnings on their products. However after a panel decision in November, drug manufacturers in Illinois may end up with less of a "liability buffer" than before in failure-to-warn states. panel of Justices recently accepted a request from Abbott Laboratories to hear a doctrine which provides evidence showing that drug manufacturers "cannot be held liable for failing to properly warn patient about their drugs' risk if they provide that information to physicians in turn who prescribe the medication."

Gretchen Harris Sperry of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, said "From a procedural perspective, it basically turned the analysis on its head and conflates the standard for analyzing medical malpractice claims," said Sperry. "It puts pharmaceutical manufacturers in an extraordinarily difficult position to write drug labels and not be able to rely on the doctors to interpret them."

The case is Charles Muhammad et al. v. Abbott Laboratories Inc. et al., case number 128841, in the Illinois Supreme Court.

High-Profile Corruption

This year, the long-awaited bribery trial against Commonwealth Edison employees will begin. The employees are being accused pf using bribed to gain former House Speaker Michael Madigan's legislative advantage. The eight-week trial will begin in March.

Additionally, Former Chicago Alderman Edward Burke will also face trial this year, after he has been accused of using his position to hire and fire, as well as receiving improper incentives during his time on City Counsel.

Mark J. Silberman of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP says, "At what point, though, do relationships become proper horse-trading become improper horse-trading become corruption? I don't know," he said. "These will be interesting questions that will likely play out, and I would expect that that is where some of the battlefield will be."

In regards to the power of the jury, "That's a particularly significant factor since social morality changes over time. When mores change around someone who's walked a particular career path for a long time, "changing your muscle memory isn't always easy."

The cases are U.S. v. McClain et al., case number 1:20-cr-00812, and U.S. v. Burke et al., case number 1:19-cr-00322, both in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.