BILL NUMBER: AB 2690	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Krekorian

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2008

   An act to add Section 1714.46 to the Civil Code, relating to
product liability actions.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2690, as introduced, Krekorian. Product liability actions:
prescription pharmaceutical products.
   Existing law holds a manufacturer strictly liable in tort when an
article it places on the market, knowing that it is to be used
without inspection for defects, proves to have a defect that causes
injury to a human being, subject to specified exceptions. Under
existing law, that defect may be the failure of the manufacturer to
provide an adequate warning. Under existing law, if a prescription
drug manufacturer provides adequate warning of potential dangers of a
drug to the physician, then the manufacturer has no duty to insure
that the warning reaches the physician's patient for whom the drug is
prescribed.
   This bill would declare that manufacturers of prescription
pharmaceutical products shall not be relieved of a duty to warn
consumers of the risks and side effects solely because the product
was prescribed to a patient by a physician.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1714.46 is added to the Civil Code, to read:
   1714.46.  Manufacturers of prescription pharmaceutical products
shall not be relieved of a duty to warn consumers of the risks and
side effects solely because the product was prescribed to a patient
by a physician.