States come out against FDA pre-emption rule in Wyeth case

MONTPELIER, Vt. Forty-seven states—including Vermont—want the United States Supreme Court to uphold a ruling against Wyeth that forced the drug maker to pay $6.8 million in damages after one of its drugs caused complications requiring a woman’s arm to be amputated.

The woman, Diana Levine of Marshfield, Vt., received an injection of the anti-nausea drug Phenergan in an artery in 2000. The injection caused artery damage and gangrene that eventually required amputation of her right arm. The jury in a lower court awarded Levine, a musician, $6.8 million.

The case will be argued before the Supreme Court Nov. 3.

Wyeth says it won approval for the drug’s warning label from the Food and Drug Administration, and thus should not have been subject to a lawsuit.