Judge's ruling gives 'wide latitude' to plaintiffs' in lawsuits against Omniscan imaging drug

ProPublica: In a key ruling, "a federal judge has given plaintiffs' lawyers wide latitude to present evidence and expert testimony that GE's Omniscan imaging drug caused a crippling disease in MRI patients." The judge issued his ruling from Cleveland as the first cases against GE get ready for a move to trial. Federal District Judge Dan Polster "criticized GE Healthcare's lawyers and witnesses for relying on misleading and flawed presentations as they sought to quash the plaintiffs' theories. ... Omniscan has been linked to a rare but often crippling disease, called nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, or NSF, in patients with kidney problems. Lawyers for NSF victims claim the company failed to adequately warn doctors and patients about the dangers." Omniscan is named in 400 of 500 similar cases that Polster is managing. ProPublica reports that the ruling, made public late Tuesday, "is procedural and sets parameters on expert testimony each side may present at upcoming trials" (Gerth, 5/5).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.