Pharmaceutical Products Litigation

Our lawyers have considerable experience and depth in defending various pharmaceutical product liability and related claims for our clients, including cases involving diet drugs, antidepressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs, migraine medication, analgesics and vaccines. One of our lawyers was recently named to the national trial team for product claims involving a cholesterol-lowering drug. We have defended pharmaceutical product liability lawsuits both in the jurisdictions where we maintain offices and also in jurisdictions where we do not. Our experience includes active defense work, as well as work on global settlements.

We also have extensive experience in the relatively new and growing area of clinical trial litigation. Our lawyers successfully defended sponsors of clinical trials in several high profile actions filed in Georgia and North Carolina challenging the design (use of placebos and exclusionary criteria) and conduct of the trials. This particular expertise not only makes us uniquely qualified to defend lawsuits arising directly out of clinical trials, but also enables our lawyers to bring additional expertise to the defense of pharmaceutical and medical device claims where the conduct and the results of clinical trials may become significant factors. Womble Carlyle has significant experience in the area of medical device liability litigation, including areas of specialty such as defibrillators/pacemakers, breast implants, pedicle screws and latex gloves.

We have been tasked by pharmaceutical and other clients to take a primary role in locating and developing medical experts for use in connection with product liability claims around the nation. Several of our lawyers specialize in the process of finding and developing experts critical to the defense of product liability lawsuits, especially those involving complex medical causation issues. Also, we provide litigation support services in various ways that assist the defense of product liability claims, including: review and analysis of medical records, trial consulting, and document review and management. These services are often critical to the defense of life science claims. A particularly unique service is the firm's Case Management Facility, a proprietary service that provides automated case management and reporting for mass tort litigation, enabling our clients' national law firms, local counsel and in-house attorneys to perform efficiently as a "virtual law firm."