The U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to decide an amputee's lawsuit against a drug maker based on how much federal regulators knew about an anti-nausea drug's risks in the event of a botched injection, the Associated Press reported.
Several justices indicated that if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had clear information about the risks of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals' anti-nausea drug Phenergan, and approved its warning label anyway, then Wyeth probably would prevail in its court fight against Diana Levine.
But there was considerable skepticism Monday among the justices - and disagreement between the opposing lawyers - that the FDA had a clear picture of the disastrous consequences of improperly giving Phenergan by an intravenous method of injection known as IV push, the fastest way to bring relief to nauseated patients.