Tenth Circuit Overturns Summary Judgment Awarded to BMS in Serzone Injury Case

DENVER - A district court's award of summary judgment to Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) was recently overturned by the Tenth Circuit, which found that inadequate warnings regarding Serzone's ability to cause priapism could have proximately caused a man's injury. Steven Thom and Marcia Thom v. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Co. No. 02-8099 (10th Cir.).

The federal appeals court's Dec. 22 opinion stated that the warnings in the package insert about Serzone's ability to cause priapism should have been stronger because BMS had knowledge that Desyrel (trazadone), the chemical analog of Serzone that the company began marketing in 1982, was associated with the condition.