A woman has filed a Taxotere permanent hair loss lawsuit against the makers of the chemotherapy drug, alleging it caused her severe personal injury. The lawsuit names Sanofi-Aventis US LLC and its related companies as the defendants in the case.

This action is part of the Taxotere MDL currently underway in Louisiana federal court under Judges Englehardt and North.

The plaintiff, Texas resident Judy J., alleges she used Taxotere between May 23 and Aug. 10, 2011. As a result of treatment, the Taxotere permanent hair loss lawsuitstates, “[Judy] continues to suffer and will suffer in the future from disfiguring permanent alopecia as a result of receiving chemotherapy with Taxotere (docetaxel).”

Judy has filed her Taxotere lawsuit on several counts including strict products liability for failure to warn, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraud and deceit.

Permanent Alopecia Risk

The MDL’s master complaint alleges the manufacturers of Taxotere, a chemotherapy drug primarily used to treat women with breast cancer, knew for years that Taxotere causes permanent hair loss, but failed to adequately warn patients and physicians alike of this risk. It also says that Sanofi failed to report the risk to the FDA as required.

The master complaint goes on to state, “Had Plaintiffs in Plaintiffs’ healthcare providers known that permanent hair loss could result, they would have selected a different treatment option – effective alternatives to these drugs that do not lead to this devastating side effect are used regularly.”

Women who have gone on to file a Taxotere permanent hair loss lawsuit like Judy, “have struggled to return to normalcy, even after surviving cancer because an integral element of their identities, their hair, never returned.” The complaint goes on to say that their continued hair loss serves as a permanent reminder to the patients and to those who see their baldness that they are cancer victims.

The master complaint for the Taxotere permanent hair loss lawsuit heavily focuses on claims that the manufacturers knew that the product caused permanent hair loss yet chose to do nothing about it.

The complaint states that plaintiffs and physicians in the U.S. were notified about the side effect many years later than patients in other countries. The European Union and Canada had labels that indicated permanent hair loss was a possible side effect of the drug, while labels in the U.S. allegedly omitted this information.

A number of allegations have been raised against the defendants, including strict products liability for failure to warn and for misrepresentation, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, fraud and deceit and breach of express warranty.

The plaintiffs filing Taxotere permanent hair loss lawsuits seek to recover compensatory damages, general damages, special damages, loss of earnings and impaired earning capacity, medical expenses, past and future mental and emotional distress, loss of companionship, punitive or exemplary damages, restitution, disgorgement of profits, attorneys’ fees and costs, pre-and post-judgment interest and any additional relief deemed just and proper by the Court.

The Taxotere Permanent Hair Loss Lawsuit is Case No. 2:17-cv-13303-KDE-MBN and is part of the Taxotere MDL, In re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2740, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.