Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News
  • Published:

Wyeth preemption case ruling sparks labeling confusion

Nature Biotechnology volume 27, pages 399–400 (2009)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 July 2009

This article has been updated

In early March, the justices voted 6-3 to uphold a $6.7 million jury award to Levine. The facts of the case were indeed tragic. Diana Levine, a musician by trade, had to have her arm amputated below the elbow after a physician's assistant made a series of errors when administering Wyeth's antinausea drug Phenergan (promethazine hydrochloride) by intravenous injection (IV), a method known as 'IV push'.

Levine settled a malpractice suit against the physician, the clinic and the physician's assistant, but also sought damages from the product's maker Wyeth, of Madison, New Jersey. The drug's label warns repeatedly of the potential risk associated with IV-push delivery (Phenergan is usually administered by intramuscular injection or intravenous drip). But Levine's attorneys argued that the label warnings were not strong enough. Wyeth's label should have explicitly told doctors to avoid IV-push methods, because the drug can cause gangrene if accidentally injected into an artery. The risk of losing a limb, Levine's lawyers told the court, far outweighed the drug's benefits when administered by IV-push.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Change history

  • 09 July 2009

    In the version of this article initially published, Phenergan is incorrectly mentioned in paragraph 2 as Merck’s antinausea drug. Phenergan is made by Wyeth. The original version also states in paragraph 3 that Wyeth is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. The company’s correct location is Madison. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Acton, Massachusetts,

    Malorye Allison

Authors
  1. Malorye Allison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Allison, M. Wyeth preemption case ruling sparks labeling confusion. Nat Biotechnol 27, 399–400 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0509-399

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0509-399

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing