A large part of the morning and half of the afternoon has been consumed with either talking about or reading the Wyeth v. Levine opinion. And  the jillions of learned blogs discussing it. I won’t offer any additional analysis except to say that it was a bit surprising. I have always had my own seat of the pants opinion about the case based on the facts as I intuited them be (not a legal analysis, mind you: a county hospital emergency room nurse analysis).

And this is what I know: you don’t give Phenergan IV. It hurts. It causes vasospasm- just like almost every other drug injected into an artery. Oh, and P.S: don’t inject anything into an artery. Ever. It causes vasospasm. This was common knowledge for any nurse working around, say injectable medication or blood vessels.

So, I thought that the facts were particularly bad for plaintiff, given what the Court’s bent seemed to be. And then, lo and behold-there it is. Preemption denied.

As a side note, I thought Clarence Thomas’ concurrence was most interesting. That he embraced the concept of state’s rights would be stating it mildly.

Most of us who earn our living defending pharmaceutical manufacturers in the courtroom will pause only for a minute. And then we will get back to what really matters: the merits of our cases.

So, bring it on.