Reed Smith. Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied certiorari review in a high-profile case involving the suicide of a Reed Smith partner in 2010, an outcome that favors GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical company whose antidepressant drug was targeted as a cause of his death.

In 2017, a Chicago federal jury awarded $3 million to the widow of lawyer Stewart Dolin after finding that GlaxoSmithKline was liable for his suicide. He was taking a generic version of the company's drug Paxil.

But last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned the damage award, ruling that the case should have been dismissed before trial because the drug company was prevented in 2007 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from adding suicide as a warning on the label for Paxil.

The Supreme Court, without comment, declined to review the appeals court decision.

Because of the FDA's refusal, the Seventh Circuit ruled that federal law preempted Dolin's Illinois law claim that the company should have warned of the risk.

Last week, lawyers for both sides in Dolin v. GlaxoSmithKline filed supplemental briefs because of the high court's May 20 decision in Merck Sharp & Dohme v. Albrecht.

Among other things, the Merck ruling established a higher standard for determining whether there is “clear evidence” that the FDA would not have approved a labeling change. The new standard was viewed as beneficial for plaintiffs because it would make it more difficult for drug companies to prove that they were forced by the FDA not to change their drug labels.

Dolin's lawyer filed a brief asserting that the Dolin case should be granted review or sent back to an appeals court for review in light of the justices' Merck decision. But the pharmaceutical company told the court that the Seventh Circuit used the same standard articulated in the Merck ruling, so review was not needed.

Lisa Blatt, a partner at Williams & Connolly, filed the supplemental brief for GlaxoSmithKline, while Bijan Esfandiari of the Los Angeles plaintiffs firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman wrote the supplemental brief on behalf of Wendy Dolin, widow of former Reed Smith partner Stewart Dolin.

Read more:

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