Supreme Court to decide new case on generics; US will argue in favor of preemption

The US Supreme Court has agreed to allow the Solicitor General to argue that federal law preempts personal injury lawsuits claiming design defects from proceeding in state courts. At issue, in this instance, is whether a generic drug maker can be held liable for a design flaw if it failed to withdraw an allegedly harmful medicine from the market. The case is called Mutual Pharmaceutical v. Bartlett. Read more on the story here. Go here for links to all the relevant documents on the case. Interestingly, the Government's position on preemption seems to have changed over the last couple of years. The case will be argued before the Supreme Court on march 19.