A woman has filed a lawsuit against the makers of the chemotherapy drug Taxotere alleging that she has suffered from permanent hair loss after taking the drug.

Plaintiff Angela M. filed her Taxotere alopecia lawsuit against manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis and its related companies after suffering from permanent hair loss that followed her breast cancer chemotherapy treatment.

Angela had treatment with Taxotere from December 2012 to July 2012. Like others in a similar situation, Angela lost her hair during chemo that did not grow back after treatment ended.

Angela has brought forth claims of strict products liability for failure to warn, strict products liability for misrepresentation, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraud and deceit and breach of express warranty against the drug manufacturer.

Angela’s short form complaint did not detail the specific damages she was seeking. However, other plaintiffs who have filed a Taxotere alopecia lawsuit have sought damages related to emotional distress and mental anguish following the physical disfigurement of having permanent hair loss, and financial recompense for medical expenses, lost wages and lost earning capacity and more.

The Taxotere Alopecia Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-6409, and is part of the Taxotere MDL In re: Taxotere (docetaxel) Products Liability Litigaion, MDL No. 2740, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

General Taxotere Alopecia Lawsuit Allegations in the Taxotere MDL

Because there were so many lawsuits against the makers of Taxotere with similar allegations of permanent hair loss, each Taxotere alopecia lawsuit was consolidated into a multidistrict litigation, or MDL. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided to consolidate these cases in order to streamline the judicial proces, to save time and resources.

Taxotere (docetaxel) is a chemotherapy drug used to treat a variety of cancers, but is most popularly known for its treatment of breast cancer. It was FDA approved in December 1992 and belongs to a family of plant-derived drugs known as taxanes.

According to the Taxotere alopecia lawsuit, “Contrary to Defendants’ claims of superior efficacy, post-market surveillance has shown that the more potent and more toxic Taxotere does not in fact offer increased efficacy or other benefits over other Taxanes, as Defendants have claimed and advertised.” The manufacturers concealed this information from the public, the lawsuit claims.

Studies showed that approximately 9% of individuals would experience permanent disfiguring hair loss as a result of the use of the chemotherapy drug, yet the makers allegedly failed to disclose this to patients and physicians.

Women opted for this particular chemo treatment based on the information from their physicians which did not include talk of permanent hair loss. The women say they would not have opted for this treatment had they known the risks of suffering permanent alopecia, claims the Taxotere alopecia lawsuits.

Additionally, the master complaint Taxotere alopecia lawsuit states that Europe and Canada were made aware of the association between Taxotere and permanent hair loss prior to notifying U.S. patients and physicians, stating that this behavior further supports that the manufacturer knew of the risks but failed to disclose them to patients and physicians.