Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-08-06018/USCOURTS-ca10-08-06018-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 360
Nature of Suit: Other Personal Injury
Cause of Action: 

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FILED

United States Court of Appeals

Tenth Circuit

June 2, 2010

Elisabeth A. Shumaker

Clerk of Court

PUBLISH

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

TENTH CIRCUIT

ANNABEL DOBBS,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v. No. 08-6018

WYETH PHARMACEUTICALS,

Defendant-Appellee.

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PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH

AND MANUFACTURERS OF

AMERICA; PRODUCT LIABILITY

ADVISORY COUNCIL, INC.;

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF

THE UNITED STATES OF

AMERICA,

 Amici Curiae.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA

(NO. 5:04-CV-01762-D)

David Charles Frederick, Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel,

P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C. (Arnold Anderson Vickery, Vickery, Waldner &

Mallia, L.L.P., Houston, TX and Earl Landers Vickery, Austin, TX, with him on

the briefs), for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Malcolm Edward Wheeler, Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, L.L.P., Denver, CO (Mark

Herrmann, Jones Day, Chicago, IL; Thomas G. Wolfe and Douglas M. Todd,

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Phillips, McFall, McCaffrey, McVay & Murrah, P.C., Oklahoma City, OK; and

David Booth Alden, Jones Day, Cleveland, OH, with him on the brief), for

Defendant-Appellee. 

Robert A. Long, Jr., Michael X. Imbroscio, Paul W. Schmidt, and Erika F.

Lietzan, Covington & Burling, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., filed an amicus curiae

brief for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in support of

Defendant-Appellee.

Hugh F. Young, Jr., Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., Reston VA;

Kenneth S. Geller and David M. Gossett, Mayer Brown, L.L.P., Washington,

D.C.; and Robin S. Conrad and Amar D. Sarwal, National Chamber Litigation

Center, Inc., Washington D.C., filed an amicus curiae brief for the Product

Liability Advisory Council, Inc. and Chamber of Commerce of the United States

of America in support of Defendant-Appellee.

Before BRISCOE, Chief Judge, and HENRY and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

HENRY, Circuit Judge.

Annabel Dobbs has alleged that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals failed to

adequately label its antidepressant Effexor to warn of suicide risk, and that this

failure to warn caused her husband’s 2002 suicide while he was taking Effexor. 

The district court granted partial summary judgment to Wyeth, holding that Ms.

Dobbs’s failure to warn claim against Wyeth was preempted by federal law. 

After the district court’s decision, the Supreme Court established a new standard

for a federal preemption defense against a failure to warn claim, holding that the

pharmaceutical company must demonstrate “clear evidence” that the Food and

Drug Administration would have rejected a label change had the pharmaceutical

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company unilaterally strengthened its drug’s warning label. See Wyeth v. Levine,

129 S. Ct. 1187, 1198 (2009). Accordingly, we must VACATE the district

court’s grant of partial summary judgment to Wyeth and REMAND the case to the

district court. On remand, the district court should first afford the parties the

opportunity to submit additional evidence. Then, the district court should

reconsider the preemption issue in light of Levine’s new “clear evidence”

standard.

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