NEW ORLEANS — A breast cancer patient has filed suit against three drug manufacturing companies for alleged design defect, failure to warn and breach of express warranty.
Wanda Smith filed a complaint June 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against Sanofi S.A., Aventis Pharma S.A., and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, separately and doing business as Winthrop U.S., alleging that they violated the Louisiana Products Liability Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that she was administered her first dose of Taxotere on or around February 2011 and underwent several rounds of treatment, which ended approximately May 2011. As a result of receiving chemotherapy with Taxotere, she has continued to suffer and will suffer in the future from disfiguring permanent alopecia.
The plaintiff holds Sanofi S.A., Aventis Pharma S.A., and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, separately, and doing business as Winthrop U.S. responsible because the defendants allegedly designed, developed, manufactured, distributed, advertised, marketed, promoted and sold Taxotere, a prescription medication for treatment of breast cancer. They also failed to provide adequate warnings, failed to advise the medical community to instruct patients that permanent alopecia was a side effect and failed to provide adequate instructions on how to reduced the risk of permanent alopecia.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against defendants in an amount to be determined at trial, for her injuries, harms, damages and losses, attorneys’ fees and costs, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest and for such other further relief as the court may deem appropriate, just and proper. She is represented by Christopher L. Coffin, Nicholas R. Rockforte and Jessica A. Perez of Pendley Baudin & Coffin LLP in New Orleans and Andrew A. Lemmon of Lemmon Law Firm LLC in Hahnville.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:16-cv-07794