Glastetter v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Tina Glastetter suffered a stroke two weeks after she gave birth to her third child. She blamed her stroke on medication called Parlodel, which she had taken to suppress postpartum lactation. Glastet-ter sued Parlodel’s manufacturer, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, in federal court under a state-law products liability theory. The district court 2 excluded Glas-tetter’s expert medical testimony that Par-lodel caused her stroke, holding that it lacked scientific reliability. Glastetter v. Novartis Pharms. Corp., 107 F.Supp.2d 1015 (E.D.Mo.2000). Because the court’s ruling was fatal to…