Taxotere MDL Judge Slashes Certain Plaintiffs’ Permanent Hair Loss Claims

NEW ORLEANS — The judge overseeing the Taxotere multidistrict litigation docket has dismissed the claims of certain plaintiffs who took the drug before Dec. 15, 2006, finding that under Louisiana law, defendants did not have a duty to warn of the risk of alopecia before that date.

Judge Jane Triche Milazzo of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana based her June 1 ruling, which applies only to cases brought under Louisiana law, upon plaintiffs’ expert testimony that defendants’ duty to warn was triggered on that date.

Plaintiffs in the MDL allege the chemotherapy drug Taxotere (docetaxel) …