A citizen and resident of the state of Indiana filed a new short-form complaint to accompany multidistrict litigation no. 2740 against the Sanofi Company on Sept. 27, 2017.

The plaintiff, Kanzia H., is a former recipient of the chemotherapy drug Taxotere, which has been implicated in causing permanent disfiguring hair loss in patients.

The plaintiff alleges that after she was administered Taxotere on May 28, 2004 and Aug. 5, 2004 as part of a treatment regimen for breast cancer, she experienced permanently disfiguring hair loss.

Kanzia H. says she expected some hair loss as part of her cancer treatment, but she also expected that her hair would grow back after chemotherapy ended. This was not the case, and she blames this medication and its developers and manufacturers for failure to warn.

The plaintiff reiterates some of the counts against Sanofi Inc. and its subsidiaries as outlined in the long-form products liability MDL as follows:

Count One –Strict Products Liability, Failure to Warn; Count Two –Strict Products Liability for Misrepresentation; Count Three –Negligence; Count Four –Negligent Misrepresentation; Count Five—Fraudulent Misrepresentation; Count Six –Fraudulent Concealment; and Count Seven –Fraud and Deceit; Count Eight –Breach of Express Warranty.

Kanzia H. is asking for a trial by jury in this disfiguring hair loss complaint. She, along with others joining this MDL, are asking for just compensation for mental anguish and distress, impairment to earning capacity and loss of wages, physical pain, injury, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life. In addition, she asks the court to consider her former, current, and future needs to pay medical bills.

The plaintiff is asking for a minimum compensation of $75,000 and the return of court costs and attorney’s fees incurred because of filing her disfiguring hair loss short-form.

The Taxotere MDL

Taxotere, also known generically as docetaxel, was approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 14, 1996. The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee originally recommended rejection of the manufacturer’s New Drug Application (NDA) because it was a stronger version of an already-marketed drug known as Taxol.

The committee felt then that there were not enough long-term studies to see how the increase in strength affected patients over the long-haul. Ultimately, the NDA was successful, however.

According to the long-form complaint against Sanofi, since its approval, Taxotere has undergone several domestic label changes. None of these changes mentioned permanent alopecia, or permanent disfiguring hair loss, until December 2015.

In other countries, this side effect was disclosed to patients, regulatory agencies and the medical professional community — proving that Sanofi knew then of the drug’s propensity for causing permanent baldness, the plaintiffs say.

If you or a loved one have experienced permanently disfiguring hair loss as a result of treatment for breast cancer with Taxotere, you may qualify for a free consultation with a knowledgeable products liability attorney.

The Taxotere Permanent Hair Loss Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-09700-KDE-MBN in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.