Over on the Drug & Device Law blog, Reed Smith partner Jim Beck applauds the recent decision in Tyree v. Boston Scientific Corp., a case filed in the Southern District of West Virginia. Tyree manages to narrow the scope of the 2007 decision in State ex rel. Johnson & Johnson v. Karl, in which the court stated that the learned intermediary rule did not apply in West Virginia, making it the only U.S. state to reject the rule as a valid defense for manufacturers. In Tyree, the court has ruled that the Karl decision does not apply to medical device manufacturers that never engaged in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. As a result, the learned intermediary rule's invalidity in West Virginia has now been restricted to cases involving "drug manufacturers that engage in DTC advertising." Read the full post here.
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