Hair loss from Taxotere is the focus of a new lawsuit by a woman who claims the chemotherapy drug left her with permanent alopecia (hair loss).

Plaintiff Sandra B. received Taxotere for cancer treatments in 2015 and 2016. As a result, she allegedly has suffered hair loss from Taxotere, including “permanent disfigurement, including alopecia; mental anguish, severe and debilitating emotional distress; past, present, and future physical and mental pain, suffering, and discomfort.”

Most chemotherapy treatments result in temporary hair loss, but only Taxotere has become known for permanent hair loss, something that was allegedly hidden from the medical community and consumers for years.

Hair Loss from Taxotere Blamed on High Potency

The FDA originally rejected approval of Taxotere because it was more toxic than its main competitor Taxol, which had already received FDA approval.

The FDA approved Taxotere in 1996, originally as its label indicated “for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after failure of prior chemotherapy.”

Taxotere claimed superiority over other chemotherapy drugs, a claim based upon self-sponsored clinical trials. More specifically, Taxotere claimed it was more effective than the less potent Taxol.

Taxotere was more toxic, but the journal Cancer Treatment Review said in its August 2007 issue that clinical studies of Taxanes did not find significant differences in the results obtained with either Taxotere or Taxol.

Even after this and other studies were published, Taxotere’s makers Sanofi S.A. and Aventis Pharma S.A. continued to promote their chemo drug as a superior choice.

In 2009, the FDA sent a warning letter to Taxotere manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis to stop overstating the drug’s efficacy because it presented “unsubstantiated superiority claims…”

Plaintiffs: Permanent Hair Loss from Taxotere Hidden from U.S. Market

Sandra and other women might have opted for other treatments had they known the possibility of permanent hair loss from Taxotere that came with no medical advantage over other Taxanes.

The drug maker is accused of misleading the public and the medical community that patients’ hair would grow back as it does after other chemotherapy treatments.

In fact, a study called GEICAM9805 published in 2005 showed that 9.2 percent of patients who took Taxotere experienced permanent hair loss after chemo for up to 10 years and five months or even longer.

The hair loss from Taxotere lawsuit says that Sanofi and Aventis “knowingly, intentionally, and wrongfully withheld these results contained in the GEICAM9805 study from physicians, healthcare providers, and patients” in the U.S.

Sanofi and Aventis are accused of preying upon “one of the most vulnerable groups of individuals at the most difficult time in their lives. Defendants obtained billions of dollars in increased revenues at the expense of unwary cancer victims simply hoping to survive their condition and return to a normal life.”

If you or a loved one has undergone chemotherapy treatment and suffered hair loss from Taxotere, you could be eligible for compensation through legal representation.

This Hair Loss from Taxotere Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-05830-KDE-MBN in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.