If you had breast cancer and took Taxotere, you may have thought that this difficult part of your journey was over once you finished your chemotherapy treatments. However, if you are now struggling with permanent hair loss (alopecia), you may be wondering what your next step is towards getting the help you need to manage this adverse condition. You are not alone. Thousands of women from around the world are in the same position and are taking Sanofi-Aventis to court. You should have been told about the possibility of permanent hair loss and you CAN do something about it.
Taxotere (docetaxel) is a synthetic chemotherapy drug that has been used to treat breast cancer patients since January 2005. However, it wasn’t until December 2015 that the FDA required Sanofi-Aventis, the makers of Taxotere, to add that permanent alopecia is a potential adverse effect. While most chemotherapy treatments cause hair loss, usually a patient’s hair will grow back thick and full once they stop treatments. With Taxotere, countless patients are experiencing little to no hair regrowth.
Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) happens when there are many similar cases that are brought together to be tried in court as a whole. For our purposes, there is a large group of women who had breast cancer, took Taxotere and are now suffering from permanent alopecia. This group of plaintiffs are now suing Sanofi-Aventis because the company failed to warn patients of this adverse effect that they clearly knew about.
Here’s a sampling of the evidence: In 2010, a study called GEICAM 9805 was conducted by Sanofi-Aventis and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In this report, researchers discovered that 10% of the patients involved in this five year study were diagnosed with permanent alopecia. However, the pharmaceutical company never put a warning on their medication and failed to tell doctors and patients of this troubling problem.
There are over 1,600 plaintiffs that are a part of this case against Sanofi-Aventis as of September 2017. The trial is set to take place in 2018 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. In March 2017, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided that docetaxel, the generic form of Taxotere, should also be included in this case which means that even more patients will be included in this trial.
Furthermore, there is a specific statute of limitations that potential plaintiffs must be aware of. You have a limited deadline from the time you were diagnosed with permanent alopecia to file a claim, so you should act immediately. Secondly, these are bellwether cases which means that selected plaintiffs will represent all the patients who are making a claim against Sanofi-Aventis. (You can just imagine the time and money that would go into having 1,600+ trials, which is why these cases are consolidated). The outcome of these cases may determine the settlement amount the defendant could pay to the injured parties. (It is important to note that if there is a settlement, each patient will receive financial compensation based on the extent of their condition; there is not one set amount per person.)
