A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging she never experienced hair regrowth after Taxotere, a strong chemotherapy drug.

Plaintiff Kalyani M. was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2013. She underwent six rounds of chemotherapy with Taxotere (docetaxel) and generic docetaxel from early August through late November of 2013.

As a result of the treatments, Kalyani alleges she “has continued to suffer and will suffer in the future from disfiguring permanent alopecia…”

Stunted Hair Regrowth after Taxotere

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Aventis is accused of knowing that permanent hair loss could be a side effect of Taxotere, but failed to warn patients and providers in the U.S.

Sanofi Aventis allegedly knew that up to 9.2 percent of Taxotere patients experience stunted hair regrowth after Taxotere. The company’s own study, GEICAM 9805, determined in 2005 that patients suffered from permanent alopecia that lasted more than a decade or longer. These test results were kept from doctors, healthcare providers and patients for years.

Instead of warning that perhaps no hair regrowth after Taxotere could be the outcome, Sanofi Aventis continued to promote that patients’ hair “generally grows back,” according to plaintiffs like Kalyani. In fact, the possibility of permanent hair loss was not included in Taxotere’s U.S. drug labeling until December 2015.

Even though many chemotherapy drugs cause temporary hair loss, permanent hair loss is not anticipated. Women suffer by being left with no eyelashes, no eyebrows, no body hair and no hair on their heads. Women who have successfully fought off breast cancer are often devastated when they find out they will endure disfiguring, permanent hair loss.

For years, Sanofi Aventis portrayed Taxotere as a safe, but more powerful and effective chemotherapy drug. Instead, plaintiffs say, Taxotere “caused dangerous side effects as well as other severe and permanent health consequences in a much more and significant rate than other forms of treatment for cancer patients,” says the hair regrowth after Taxotere lawsuit.

The pharmaceutical company also allegedly claimed that Taxotere’s effectiveness was superior over other taxane-based chemotherapy drugs. The claims of superiority were allegedly based on the fact that Taxotere is more toxic than its main competitor. But that toxicity does not make it more effective, plaintiffs claim. In fact, when the FDA originally approved Taxotere in 1996, the drug was indicated only for treatment of patients whose prior chemotherapy had failed.

Over the years, doctors, health care providers and patients relied upon the representations of efficacy and safety that allowed Sanofi Aventis to make billions of dollars and increase market penetration. Yet Kalyani and thousands of other women allege they have suffered from no hair regrowth after Taxotere without any additional benefit.

The Hair Regrowth After Taxotere Lawsuit is Case No. 4:18-cv-01811-KAW in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.