Programming

May 6, 2021 | 1 - 2 pm

Webinar Recording—Preemption in Drug Product Liability: The Latest on “Changes Being Effected” and the Impact of Albrecht

Panelists:

Daniel E. Troy
Board Member
Managing Director, Health Analytics, Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Daniel J. Feith
Robert E. Johnston
Board Member
Hollingsworth LLP
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Featuring:

  • Daniel E. Troy, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and General Counsel, Valo Health, Inc., and former Chief Counsel, U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
  • Robert E. Johnston, partner, Hollingsworth LLP
  • Daniel J. Feith, counsel, Sidley Austin LLP and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Consumer Protection Branch, U.S. Department of Justice

About the Webinar:
The Supreme Court’s May 2019 Merck v. Albrecht decision clarified that judges, not juries, should analyze a prescription drug maker’s federal preemption defense in failure-to-warn suits. Under Albrecht, courts must decide whether companies could unilaterally add a warning under federal labeling rules. Our speakers will examine recent court decisions implicating warnings and preemption. Among the cases they will discuss is Janssen Pharm. v. A.Y., a state court decision that the company has appealed to the Supreme Court. The justices could rule on the certiorari petition as early as May 13.

Related Cases

June 16, 2025

Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht

On June 16, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to review a Third Circuit decision that muddies when federal law preempts a plaintiff’s state-law failure-to-warn claim. The decision was a setback for WLF, which argued in its amicus brief that the Third Circuit’s approach strayed from Albrecht I’s clear path and the...

May 17, 2021

Janssen Pharmaceuticals v. A.Y.

On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear an important pharmaceutical preemption case. This was a setback for WLF, which had argued in its amicus brief that the Superior Court of Pennsylvania’s decision applied a non-existent presumption against preemption. WLF’s brief also explained how the Superior Court’s decision...

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Conversations with...

June 10, 2021

Conversations With: Federal Preemption in Pharmaceutical Product-Liability Litigation

Daniel E. TroyRobert E. JohnstonDaniel J. Feith Featuring Daniel E. Troy, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Valo Health; Robert E. Johnston, a partner with Hollingsworth LLP; and Daniel J. Feith, a counsel with Sidley Austin LLP. Publication Summary: The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act grants...

Legal Opinion Letters

March 26, 2021

Fourth Circuit Clarifies “Newly Acquired Information” for Changes Being Effected Drug-Labeling Purposes

Gordon D. Todd is a Partner in the Washington, DC office of Sidley Austin LLP, and J. Manuel Valle and Alaric R. Smith are Associates in the firm’s Washington, DC office.* Drug manufacturers can breathe a sigh of relief following the Fourth Circuit’s recent decision in Knight v. Boehringer Ingelheim...

Monographs

October 30, 2015

Federal Preemption: Origins, Types and Trends in the U.S. Supreme Court

By Frank Cruz-Alvarez and Jennifer Voss, Partners, and Jared Sherr and Talia Zucker, Associates, with Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. Foreword by Daniel E. Troy, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline. Mr. Troy is also a member of WLF’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.