Andrew Soukup Named Litigator of the Week for Decongestant MDL Victory

Andrew Soukup was named a Litigator of the Week in AmLaw Litigation Daily for his work successfully arguing a motion to dismiss a multidistrict litigation on behalf of The Procter & Gamble Co., against class-action plaintiffs alleging that phenylephrine, an FDA-approved active ingredient in P&G’s cold and cough medicine, was ineffective as over-the counter treatment for nasal decongestant. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn, who is overseeing the industry-wide decongestant multidistrict litigation, granted the motion to dismiss, finding that state-law claims concerning the effectiveness of decongestants were preempted by federal law.

As Andrew states, “This case is not just about whether a particular medicine works or not. Rather, it is about whether plaintiffs can use class-action litigation to challenge a federal agency’s long-standing judgment about when medicine is effective and what information must be provided to consumers about that medicine. If manufacturers could not rely on the FDA’s judgments on these issues, the uniform federal regulatory regime governing over-the-counter drugs created by Congress would be thrown into disarray. Congress passed a law giving the FDA the exclusive authority to make these determinations, and we are grateful that the Court enforced that provision here.”

In addition to Andrew, the Covington team representing The Procter & Gamble Co. included Laura Flahive Wu, Cort Lannin, Dillon Grimm, Amy Health, Jeff Huberman and Ethan Treacy.