An Ohio woman has filed a Taxotere permanent alopecia lawsuit against Sanofi Aventis, the makers of her chemotherapy drug, claiming that Taxotere was the cause of her permanent hair loss.

This Taxotere permanent alopecia lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Sandra M. of Ohio, is joining the larger Taxotere multidistrict litigation, or MDL.

Sandra’s short form complaint alleges that she took Taxotere from August 2007 through December 2007. As a result, she claims that she suffered from Taxotere permanent alopecia.

Her Taxotere permanent alopecia lawsuit has been filed on the counts of failure to warn, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and fraud and deceit.

This Taxotere permanent alopecia plaintiff states that she “did not suspect, nor have reason to suspect, that wrongdoing had caused her injuries.” Furthermore, Sandra believes that she “was prevented from discovering this information sooner because [Sanofi] misrepresented and continue to misrepresent to the public, to the medical profession and to [Sandra] that Taxotere is safe and free from side effects.”

She alleges that Sanofi Aventis has “fraudulently concealed facts and information that could have led [her] to an earlier discovery of potential causes of action.”

Sandra is not the only Taxotere user that has claimed to experience this permanent and disfiguring form of hair loss. Taxotere users, like the users of most chemotherapy drugs, expect the normal amount of hair loss during treatment. Chemotherapy targets the quickly growing cells of the body. So, while chemotherapy can be effective in fighting cancer, it also can affect other body cells like the ones that produce hair.

With most chemotherapy patients, hair returns after the end of chemotherapy treatment. But Taxotere users often tell a different story.

Many Taxotere users report that their hair has not returned years after they ceased treatment with Taxotere. This can have devastating effects for patients. Taxotere users are often women because Taxotere is a drug that often treats breast cancer. When a woman becomes permanently bald, this can have a serious negative impact on her feeling about her appearance and her emotional well being.

Some studies report that Taxotere permanent alopecia can occur in up to 10% of users. If Taxotere is used with other chemotherapy drugs, this risk increases.

Taxotere was approved in 1996 as a chemotherapy drug and it is often used jointly with other chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer. Taxotere is often administered to patients who suffer from breast cancer, however, it has also been used to combat lung, prostate, head and neck cancers. Taxotere is given intravenously to the cancer patient under the supervision of a doctor.

Like Sandra, many patients who experience Taxotere permanent alopecia claim that they were not warned about the possible risks associated with the use of the drug. They claim that Sanofi Aventis knew or should have known about the long-term effects of this powerful chemotherapy drug.

This Taxotere Permanent Alopecia Lawsuit is case number 2:17-cv-13631-KDE-MBN in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana.