Over on the Drug & Device Law blog, Reed Smith partner Eric Alexander calls attention to Booker v. Johnson & Johnson, 2014 WL 5113305 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 10, 2014), a recent decision from the Ortho Evra multi-district litigation (MDL) extending the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, 133 S.Ct. 2466 (2013) from warnings-based claims to design-based claims. Booker recognized that Georgia law was preempted under Bartlett because it was impossible for the pharmaceutical company to comply with both the state law (which mandates that the product’s design be changed) and the federal law (which mandates that the product’s design not be altered after commercial released). The Drug & Device Law blog had predicted that design-defect preemption would be a natural extension or application of Bartlett, and Booker now provides legal authority for that proposition. Read the full post here.