A Louisiana woman who says she suffers from permanent hair loss has filed a claim against a drug maker over its alleged false claims about Taxotere.

Plaintiff Sue D. says she was prescribed Taxotere to treat her stage I breast cancer from July through October of 2011.

She says neither she nor her treating physician were informed by Taxotere that disfiguring permanent hair loss, known as alopecia, could occur after treatment with the chemotherapy drug.

Taxotere is made by Sanofi S.A., Aventis Pharma S.A, Sanofi-Aventis U.S., Inc., and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC, separately and doing business as Winthrop U.S.

False Claims About Taxotere

Taxotere was FDA approved in May 1996 and was “indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after failure of prior chemotherapy.”

Sanofi sought further FDA approval for additional indications for Taxotere.

“Based on self-sponsored clinical trials, defendants claimed superiority over other chemotherapy products approved to treat breast cancer. Defendants’ marketing claims included claims of superior efficacy over the lower potency taxane product Taxol, which was the primary competitor to Taxotere,” according to Sue’s Taxotere lawsuit.

Despite Taxotere’s claims of superiority, post market studies show that while Taxotere is more potent and more toxic, it is not more effective over other taxanes, according to Sue.

She says that these allegedly false claims about Taxotere helped spur the drug’s sales.

And while temporary hair loss is a side effect of most chemotherapy treatments, permanent hair loss is not, she claims.

According to her Taxotere lawsuit, Sanofi Aventis warned doctors and patients in other countries about the possibility of permanent alopecia with Taxotere treatments.

No such warnings were given to physicians and the public in the United States until December 2015, Sue says.

Because of the absence of such warnings, she alleges, patients believed their hair would grow back – a belief she says turned out to be false for many patients.

“Defendants knew or should have known that the rate of permanent alopecia related to Taxotere was far greater than with other products available to treat the same condition as the defendant’s product,” the Taxotere lawsuit states.

Women who experience permanent baldness tend to “suffer great mental anguish as well as economic damages, including, but not limited to, loss of work or inability to work due to significant psychological damage,” according to the Taxotere lawsuit.

In addition, Sue says, these women might have accepted the possibility of permanent baldness had it been their only available option to survive. But that was not the case, according to Sue.

These women made their decisions based on the allegedly false claims about Taxotere – that it was a superior product, and one with side effects no different from those of other chemo treatments, Sue claims.

If you have endured Taxotere chemotherapy treatments that have resulted in permanent alopecia, you could be eligible for compensation through a Taxotere lawsuit.

Sue’s Taxotere Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-15351 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.