A South Carolina woman and her husband are filing suit against Sanofi-Aventis claiming that cancer drug Taxotere caused permanent hair loss.

Dena S. and husband Christopher S. have filed a lawsuit against the makers of the drug Taxotere, a drug commonly used in chemotherapy. She claims she suffered from various injuries, serious physical pain and suffering, medical and hospital expenses and permanent hair loss as a direct result of the use of chemotherapy drug, Taxotere.

The plaintiff began taking Taxotere on November 1, 2008 for the treatment of breast cancer. As a direct result, she claims, of taking Taxotere, Dena says that in January 2016, she was diagnosed with permanent and severe alopecia. She says that Taxotere caused permanent hair loss.

Dena claims that Taxotere caused permanent hair loss and that she was unaware of the risks. She claims that she would not have taken the drug had she known the threat of alopecia.

Chemotherapy commonly comes with side effects, including temporary hair loss; hair, however, almost always comes back. Taxotere, however, has been linked with permanent alopecia and many patients claim that Taxotere caused them permanent hair loss.

About Taxotere

In 1996 Taxotere, or docetaxel, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is a chemotherapy drug that is often used with other chemotherapy drugs for, most often, breast cancer treatment. It is also used to treat cancers of the lungs, prostate, head, and neck.

It is given in cycles intravenously under strict supervision from doctors.

Many cancer patients expect to lose their hair during chemotherapy, however, according to recent studies, up to 10% of docetaxel users claim that Taxotere caused permanent hair loss. When used with other chemotherapy drugs, the chance increases.

Allegedly, Sanofi-Aventis knew about the risk connected with their drug yet failed to notify the medical community or patients of the potential problems.

Dena also believes that Sanofi-Aventis was reckless in their development and approval of the drug. She says that because Taxotere was defective in its design, it was more potent. As such, Taxotere has increased toxicity which, she claims, can be directly related to the increase in adverse events.

She claims that the most likely reason that Sanofi-Aventis designed a more potent drug was to obtain a patent, and engage the current market on a patent that was more dangerous.

Dena and her husband are bringing forth claims of strict liability, design defect, negligence, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty and loss of consortium.

This Taxtore Lawsuit is Case No. N16C-12-422, in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware.