Mass. Magistrate Judge Denies Lilly Summary Judgment on DES Failure-To-Warn Claim; Trial Begins

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge has denied Ely Lilly & Co.’s (NYSE: LLY) motion for summary judgment on a failure-to-warn claim in a case in which four sisters allege that their mother’s ingestion of diethylstilbestrol in the 1950s caused them to develop breast cancer 50 years later.

On Dec. 21, Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler found testimony proffered by the plaintiffs raised a question of fact as to whether adequate warnings would have caused the family doctor to share the warning with their mother, causing her to refuse the drug. The trial commenced on Jan. 4.

Andrea Andrews, …