PERRY, Ga. (AP) - A jury in central Georgia has awarded $20.5 million in damages to a retired teacher in her civil lawsuit against a drug company.
The Telegraph of Macon reports (http://bit.ly/2paC7XH ) Ann Pope sued Akorn Inc. in Houston County State Court, saying the company failed to note in prescription warning labeling that it's drug methylene blue would react adversely with another drug, Effexor XR.
Pope said she went into a coma and suffers permanent cognitive damage because she was given methylene blue during a 2013 surgery while she was already taking the other drug.
Akorn's attorneys argued there was no FDA directive to change its prescription warning labeling. They also said Effexor's label did warn of potential interaction with methylene blue, but the hospital where Pope had surgery failed to catch it.
