The litigation was complicated since there was a lack of clarity in jurisdiction between state laws, where product liability is determined, and federal law, which determines how drugs are labelled, as well as between generics companies, which had no control over labelling, and the originator company, which did. The litigation yielded at least two important cases. In Conte v. Wyeth in the California state courts, the claims of the plaintiff against the generic companies Pliva, Teva, and Purepac that had sold the drugs that the plaintiff actually took, and the claims against Wyeth, whose product the plaintiff never took, were all dismissed by the trial court, but the case was appealed, and in 2008 the appellate court upheld the dismissal of the cases against the generic companies, but reversed on Wyeth, allowing the case against Wyeth to proceed. This established an "innovator liability" or "pioneer liability" for pharmaceutical companies. The precedent was not widely followed in California nor in other states. Litigation over the same issues related to metoclopramide also reached the US Supreme Court in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing, in which the court held in 2011 that generic companies cannot be held liable for information, or the lack of information, on the originators label.
As of August 2015 there were about 5000 suits pending across the US and efforts to consolidate them into a class action had failed.Shortly following the Pliva decision, the FDA proposed a rule change that would allow generics manufacturers to update the label if the originating drug had been withdrawn from the market for reasons other than safety. As of May 2016 the rule, which turned out to be controversial since it would open generic companies to product liability suits, was still not finalized, and the FDA had stated the final rule would be issued in April 2017. The FDA issued a draft guidance for generic companies to update labels in July 2016. Society and culture
Brand names
Veterinary use
Metoclopramide is commonly used to prevent vomiting in cats and dogs. It is also used as a gut stimulant in rabbits. References
External links
"Metoclopramide". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Metoclopramide Injection". MedlinePlus.