A new patient has joined a growing multidistrict litigation with a Taxotere lawsuit claiming that the chemo drug caused permanent hair loss.

Plaintiff Bettie C. says that she was given the chemotherapy drug Taxotere or a related drug in her home state of Virginia between April 14, 2015 and June 16, 2015. She claims the drug caused hair loss that she thought would be temporary, but turned out to be permanent.

Bettie says that she was administered the chemotherapy drug to treat her breast cancer. She says that she experienced both hair loss and significant thinning of her hair when she took the drug. Allegedly, even six months after she took Taxotere, she was still experiencing thinning, and still has bald areas in her hair that have not regrown hair.

Bettie argues that she did not know that the hair loss caused by Taxotere could be permanent, and had she known that the hair loss could be permanent, she would not have chosen to use Taxotere for her chemotherapy treatment.

The Taxotere lawsuit aims to hold the makers of the drug, Sanofi-Aventis, Sandoz, Accord Healthcare, McKesson Corporation, and other companies, liable for her injury.

She notes that the companies produce a number of related chemotherapy drugs including Taxotere, Docefrez, Docetaxel Injection, and Docetaxel Injection concentrate, and states that she did not know which versions she was administered. However, she asserts that the name brand drugs are related, as they all contain the drug docetaxel.

She says that she was physically injured by the hair loss itself. She claims that she was also emotionally injured by the drug because she suffered emotional anguish, embarrassment, and a change in self perception because of her hair loss. She also says that she was financially injured by the drug because she spent money attempting to regrow her hair or find solutions to hide her hair loss.

Bettie joins numerous other breast cancer patients who took Taxotere or one of the other related drugs contained docetaxel. These patients claim that the drug makers knew or should have known that their drugs could cause permanent hair loss, but marketed the drugs as if they only could cause temporary hair loss, similar to that caused by many chemotherapy drugs.
WebMD
notes that permanent hair loss can’t be cured, so the consequences of this hair loss is something that Taxotere patients may have to deal with for the rest of their lives.

The Taxotere lawsuit and multidistrict litigation note that Taxotere was initially approved by the FDA just for use in patients who had not had success with other chemotherapy drugs, and it was not designed to be used very widely.

However, the American Cancer Society notes that docetaxel drugs like Taxotere are now among the most popular chemotherapy drugs for neoadjuvant chemo (chemotherapy used before surgery) and advanced breast cancer that has spread beyond the breasts. So, many patients may have been prescribed this drug and were possibly put at risk for permanent hair loss. 

According to the Taxotere lawsuit, the drugs’ makers did not warn American consumers of the permanent hair loss risks until 2015, but warned Canadian patients that the drugs could cause permanent hair loss as early as 2005. Many patients argue that the drug makers concealed this information from American consumers as long as possible in the interest of their own profits.

The Taxotere Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-01506, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.