Wright Medical Prevails on Failure-To-Warn Claims in Ariz. Federal Hip Action

PHOENIX — The learned intermediary doctrine bars failure-to-warn claims in a lawsuit targeting Wright Medical Technology Inc.’s Profemur Total Hip System because the implanting surgeon did not read the device’s warnings, an Arizona federal judge has ruled.

In an Aug. 24 order, Judge Steven P. Logan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona further found that the plaintiff failed to overcome the heeding presumption which allows “the fact-finder to presume that the person injured by product use would have heeded an adequate warning, if given.”

“The heeding presumption and the learned intermediary doctrine work together; rather …