HP&M Issues Analysis Discussing the Implications of the Supreme Court’s Wyeth v. Levine Decision

March 16, 2009

Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C. (“HP&M”) has issued a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Wyeth v. Levine.  A copy of the analysis, written by James P. Ellison and Carrie S. Martin, is available here.  In Wyeth, the Court ruled that, based on the facts of that case, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act does not preempt state law.  Although the immediate effect was to let stand the state law tort judgment against Wyeth, the effects of the case are almost certainly not going to be so limited.  In fact, as discussed in HP&M’s analysis, Wyeth is likely to remain an important Supreme Court preemption case for the drug industry for the foreseeable future. 

In addition to issuing an analysis of the Wyeth opinion, on March 24, 2009, HP&M's John R. Fleder and Kurt R. Karst will be speaking at a webinar sponsored by FDA News about the implications of Wyeth.  Information about the webinar is available here.