Merck headquarters in New Jersey. (Photo: Shutterstock)
In a win for Big Pharma, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday remanded a class of failure-to-warn tort claims against drug manufacturer Merck to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for determination by judges, not juries.
The court was unanimous on the result in Merck Sharp & Dohme v. Albrecht, and Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the opinion for the court. He was joined in an unusual lineup by Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch. Thomas filed a separate concurrence, as did Justice Samuel Alito Jr., joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The Alito concurrence agreed with the result, but not the reasoning.
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Mike Scarcella
Mike Scarcella is a senior editor in Washington on ALM Media's regulatory desk. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @MikeScarcella. Mike works on a slate of newsletters: Supreme Court Brief | Higher Law | Compliance Hot Spots | Labor of Law.
