A new plaintiff has registered a legal claim because of her inability to resume hair growth after chemo treatment for breast cancer in 2013.

Plaintiff Phyllis A. joins many others under the umbrella of Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) No. 2740 pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana concerning Taxotere products liability—a cancer treatment drug generically known as docetaxel.

While many entities are listed as sponsors, manufacturers, and distributors of the drug in question, the named defendant in Phyllis’ case is Sanofi U.S. Services Inc. Her lawsuit was filed on Jan. 17, 2019.

According to the short-form complaint, despite six years having passed since receiving treatment with Taxotere made by the defendant, Phyllis has experienced ongoing baldness in spots all over her head, continued thinning of her hair which allows her scalp to prominently show regardless of styling, and continued loss of hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.

How Difficult Is It To Resume Hair Growth After Chemo?

According to an article posted at BreastCancer.org, patients rarely need to stimulate hair growth after chemo artificially, although the reappearance of hair, eyebrows and eyelashes happens at different rates depending upon the individual. Typically, within 2-3 weeks of ceasing chemo, the patient would expect to have soft, downy-like fuzz appear on their scalp.

A month after ending cancer treatment, hair should start to resume some normalcy and grow at its former rate. Within a couple of months after chemotherapy, there is usually at least an inch—if not more—hair visible on the scalp.

The texture and quality may be different but not inferior to the patient’s previous hair—it may come back thicker, curlier, or a color somewhat foreign to them if they were accustomed to dying their locks.

Reportedly, chemotherapy drugs cannot distinguish between cancer and the good healthy fast-proliferating cells such as hair follicles, cells in the digestive tract, and bone marrow.

Nevertheless, this report indicates that a former cancer patient almost never needs to do extraordinary things to stimulate hair growth after chemo, but good nutrition and supplementation with biotin, vitamin E, and vitamin B might be of assistance.

The History of Taxotere

Taxotere, a much stronger version of Taxol—made from the yew plant—was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996 after first being rejected a couple of years prior.

Because long-term safety was in question due to its ramped up strength compared to its competitor Taxol, Taxotere was recommended to be used in cases where other drugs had failed and cancer had metastasized.

Plaintiffs claim that when the new drug application was allegedly presented to the FDA, data from a pre-approval study was allegedly hidden by the defendant. The data from GEICAM 9805 purportedly revealed that 10 percent of patients taking Taxotere experienced alopecia or permanent balding lasting up to ten years beyond treatment.

Despite this knowledge, Sanofi allegedly set out to aggressively advertise the advantages of Taxotere over Taxol in order to win over the market.

At one point, data presented to the public got the attention and a subsequent letter from the FDA. The drug’s manufacturers did succeed in convincing physicians and patients of Taxotere’s purported superiority for some time.

The Sanofi Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-00345-JTM-MBN in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.