Centocor, Inc. v. Bullen
Supreme Court of Texas
372 S.W.3d 140 (Tex. 2012)
Patricia Hamilton (plaintiff) suffered a serious lupus-like side effect from the drug Remicade, manufactured by Centocor (defendant) and administered by Dr. Bullen (defendant), who was not the prescribing physician; the Hamiltons sued, alleging inadequate warnings made the drug defective, and the trial court directed a verdict for Dr. Bullen (who had no duty to warn as a non-prescriber) while a jury awarded the Hamiltons $4.6 million against Centocor. The court of appeals reversed some damages but affirmed liability, and Centocor appealed, invoking the learned intermediary doctrine to argue it had no duty to warn Patricia directly.
Whether the learned intermediary doctrine limits a prescription drug manufacturer's duty to warn to the prescribing physician rather than the end-user patient, and whether that doctrine's protections are lost when a drug has been subject to some direct-to-consumer marketing.