Bendectin and Birth Defects : : The Challenges of Mass Toxic Substances Litigation / / Michael D. Green.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Pennsylvania Press Package Archive 1898-1999
• VerfasserIn: Green, Michael D.,
• Place / Publishing House: Philadelphia : : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2016]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (384 p.)

Benedictin was prescribed to more than thirty-five million American women from its introduction in 1956 until 1983, when it was withdrawn from the market. The drug's manufacturer, Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, a major U.S. pharmaceutical firm, joined a list of other companies whose product liabilities would result in precedent-setting litigation. Before it was over, the Benedictin litigation would involve 2,000 claimants over a fifteen-year period. Michael D. Green offers a comprehensive overview of the Benedictin case and highlights many of the key issues in mass toxic substances litigation, comparing individual and collective forms of litigation, and illustrating the misunderstandings between scientists and lawyers about the role of science in providing evidence for the legal system.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1. A Birth Defect Child Is Born -- Chapter 2. Locating Bendectin Within the Mass Toxic Landscape -- Chapter 3. The Science of Determining Toxic Causation -- Chapter 4. The Food and Drug Administration -- Chapter 5. The Wm. S. Merrell Company -- Chapter 6. A Mother's Quest -- Chapter 7. The Mekdeci Case -- Chapter 8. The Unraveling Of Mekdeci -- Chapter 9. The Proliferation of Bendectin Litigation -- Chapter 10. Litigating a Multidistrict Case -- Chapter 11. The Withdrawal of Bendectin -- Chapter 12. Forging a Mass Toxic Substances Trial -- Chapter 13. The Settlement and Unsettlement of MDL-486 -- Chapter 14. The MDL-486 Trial -- Chapter 15. Aggregative Procedure in Mass Toxic Substances Litigation -- Chapter 16. The Third Phase of Bendectin Litigation: Oxendine, Richardson, and the Individual Trials -- Chapter 17. The Legacy of Bendectin for Toxic Causation Law -- Chapter 18. The Lessons and Non-Lessons of Bendectin Litigation -- Selected Bibliography -- Index