Supremes Rule for Generic Drug Makers

The Supreme Court ruled that generic drug makers cannot be sued for not warning consumers about side effects of their drugs, as long as the products copy the exact warning on their brand-name equivalents. The ruling determined that any state law allowing people to sue drug makers who have proper warnings about common side effects would be trumped by the federal law that requires generics have the exact same warnings as their equivalents. The court acknowledged in the majority opinion that the decision “makes little sense” to any people who have been harmed by generic drugs and would now be unable to sue the drug companies.