A Texas cancer patient has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the chemotherapy drug Taxotere. Alina S. Gorniak alleges the drug left her with permanent baldness. She was diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the left breast in January 2013 and had six Taxotere treatments. Taxotere is a powerful chemotherapy drug manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis that was approved for breast cancer in 1996. Sanofi-Aventis is a French multinational pharmaceutical company and in 2013 was ranked the world’s fifth-largest in prescription sales.
Gorniak argues that Sanofi-Aventis knew of the risk years before recent lawsuits and failed to warn of the risk of permanent alopecia when marketing the product. Her complaint states that as early as 2006 an oncologist alerted Sanofi-Aventis that greater than six percent of his patients taking Taxotere suffered from long-term or permanent hair loss.
Oncology cases are complex and require a thorough analysis of medical records by an experienced and board certified oncologist. These experts are key members of the litigation team in discovery, court motions, trial, and appeal.
