Wash. Federal Lawsuit Targeting Humira Vaccine Dismissed as Preempted, Inadequately Pled

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Washington federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit in which a man alleged Humira caused him to develop an autoimmune disease, ruling that his design defect claim is preempted by federal law because the defendant drug makers could not have made the vaccine safer after it was approved by the FDA.

In a Dec. 17 order, Judge Thomas O. Rice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington further ruled that the plaintiff failed to allege that the drug was defectively designed or that its manufacturers failed to warn of its risks.