Belviq Thyroid Cancer Action Survives Dismissal Motion in N.Y. Federal Court

UTICA, N.Y. — A New York federal judge has refused to dismiss an action in which a woman alleges the weight loss drug Belviq caused her to develop thyroid cancer, ruling that claims for design defect, failure to warn, negligence, and breach of warranty were adequately pled.

However, in the Feb. 16 order, Judge David N. Hurd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York dismissed the fraud-based claims as lacking the specificity required by Rule 9(b).

Before seeking FDA approval for Belviq, Eisai Inc. and Arena Pharmaceuticals conducted a cancer-risk study on rats, in which …