Bristol Myers Squibb Sued Over Leukemia Treatment


On Friday a case was removed from Los Angeles County Superior Court to the Central District of California. The case was filed by Igor Roshkovan, DDS against Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The case is regarding product liability and failure to warn regarding the Sprycel drug produced by Bristol Myers Squibb.

Sprycel was a drug created for the treatment of Chromic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), according to the complaint. While being effective at the treatment, Sprycel has the side effect of causing severe, acute-onset vision loss due to hemorrhages.

The plaintiff, according to his complaint, suffered an acute retinol hemorrhages which caused blindness in one eye. The plaintiff accuses the defendant of marketing Sprycel as a first line treatment for CML, when in fact it was approved as a second line treatment to be used if other, more conservative treatments failed to provide results. The plaintiff also accuses the defendants of failure to warn at all regarding ocular side effects and posting an extremely general warning regarding other side effects.

The plaintiff is suing for strict product liability and general negligence regarding failure to warn. The plaintiff is self represented. The defendants are represented by Hogan Lovells.