A patient in Missouri is joining a growing multidistrict litigation over Taxotere hair loss during chemo, saying that the condition is permanent.

Plaintiff Karen S. says that she was treated with Taxotere between Dec. 7, 2010 and Feb. 8, 2011 during her cancer during chemotherapy. Karen says that she suffered permanent hair loss because of her use of the drug. She aims to hold Sanofi-Aventis U.S. and Sanofi US Services Inc. accountable for her injuries.

Karen claims that she was aware that Taxotere could cause hair loss, as many chemotherapy drugs do, but she was not made aware that the hair loss could be permanent. She says that had she known that the Taxotere hair loss during chemo would be permanent, she would not have agreed to use the drug for her cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy treatment works by killing rapidly reproducing cells. Though this can kill cancer, it kills other rapidly reproducing cells like those found in hair, causing temporary hair loss for the duration of the treatment. Other cells affected can include cells in skin, fingernails, and toenails.

Many people undergoing chemotherapy treatment expect to lose their hair, but anticipate that it will grow back eventually. However, patients like Karen have discovered that their hair loss during chemo with Taxotere did not end, causing permanent hair loss, or alopecia.

Patients in the Taxotere hair loss during chemo class action lawsuit say that Sanofi-Aventis knew or should have known that the drug caused permanent hair loss, but continued to market and sell it nonetheless, in an attempt to increase their profits.

About Taxotere

In 1992, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketed Taxol, a chemotherapy drug whose compounds are made from a yew plant. Taxol was first marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Then,  in 1994, the FDA rejected an application for a stronger version of Taxol, called Taxotere, because the agency said they needed to see more research on the drug.

Taxotere was then approved in 1996 with certain caveats. Because the drug was stronger and associated with more risks than Taxol, the FDA restricted Taxotere’s use to cases in which a patient’s cancer had not responded to other treatments, or if a cancer case was severe and the cancer had metastasized to other areas of a patient’s body.

Patients in the Taxotere multidistrict litigation claim that the clinical trials conducted on Taxotere to prove its safety were paid for and directed by Sanofi’s own agency, suggesting that the data gained was biased and less than accurate.

Despite the FDA’s restrictions on Taxotere and reservations about its safety, Taxotere patients like Karen say that Sanofi aggressively marketed Taxotere after gaining its approval, advertising Taxotere to be preferable to Taxol.

Karen and others claim that Taxotere was not as safe as advertised, a claim which they back up by noting that the FDA warned Sanofi in 2009 to discontinue using their “pseudo-data” to advertise the drug, saying that the companies’ claim about the drug constituted a misbranding under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.