Case Notes

In the case of Caltagirone v. Cephalon, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Denis P. Cohen has granted the plaintiff the right to subpoena documents concerning pharmaceuticals manufacturer Cephalon from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern Dirstrict of Pennsylvania. The civil suit is being brought by a man who claims that his son's methadone overdose can be traced back to an addiction he developed from using Cephalon's fentanyl-laced lollipops, marketed under the name Actiq. Although these lollipops were approved for use only by cancer patients who had been prescribed them for pain relief by oncologists specially trained in dealing with Schedule II opioids, the plaintiff contends that Cephalon sales representatives marketed Actiq to doctors for a number of other uses, including the relief of migraine headaches. Among these, according to the claim, was the plaintiff's son's doctor, who prescribed Actiq to the son for treatment of migraines in 2005. The plaintiff's son became addicted, states the claim, and after consuming nearly 6,000 lollipops between 2005 and 2011, he began taking methadone to combat the addiction. The plaintiff's son died of a methadone overdose in May 2014.