Merck’s Singulair® Subject Of New Class-Type Claims Of Injuries…

We've followed the asthma drug since 2008. But this is shaping up to be pharma product liability class action litigation, of the sort that often stretches across. . . decades.

Thus, we should buckle in, here -- for a long and bumpy ride. Here's the latest:

. . .Merck’s early safety claims later faced intense scrutiny amid reports over two decades that patients, including many children, had died by suicide or experienced neuropsychiatric problems after taking the drug. The FDA in 2020 ordered its most serious warning, known as a “black box,” on Singulair’s label. And Merck now faces a raft of lawsuits alleging it knew from its early research that the drug could impact the brain and that it minimized the potential for psychiatric problems in statements to regulators.

The lawsuits cite the research of Julia Marschallinger, a cell biologist who has studied the drug along with colleagues at the Institute of Molecular Regenerative Medicine in Austria. That team found in 2015 that the drug’s distribution into the brain was more significant than its label described. The FDA cited Marschallinger’s work when it ordered Singlair’s black-box warning label. . . .

So, now you know -- and we will keep an eye on this developing body of US litigation. Onward; g'night.

नमस्ते