A number of pharmaceutical companies make lidocaine patches for paint relief. To provide this relief, they must be attached to the users’ bodies. The complaint for this class action alleges that the “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches sold by the Kroger Company peel off the body too easily, thus keeping them from providing the advertised relief.
Two classes have been defined for this action:
- The Illinois Class is all persons in Illinois who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
- The Consumer Fraud Multi-State Class is all persons in Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Utah who bought the product during the applicable statutes of limitations.
An image of the front of the box for the product is displayed on the first page of the complaint. It shows the words, “Maximum Strength” and “Lidocaine Patch,” promising or proposing “Up to 8 Hours of Relief,” “Temporary Relief of Pain,” “Desensitize Aggravated Nerves,” and “Numbing Relief.”
The patches are supposed to provide 4% lidocaine, which is a topical anesthetic that the complaint says is “used to treat pain by blocking the transmission of pain signals from nerve endings in the skin to the spinal cord and brain.”
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) undertook to make rules for lidocaine patches, but the complaint alleges that the agency discovered that “transdermal drug delivery systems … systematically fail to adhere to the body.”
The complaint refers to a 2021 study in the Journal of Pain Research on prescription lidocaine patches that showed poor rates of adherence, and alleges that, “upon information and belief, [Kroger’s] product, which has not undergone [the] rigorous approval process required by the FDA and use[s] the same outdated and defective adhesion technology as the generic lidocaine patches, fare[s] no better.”
The complaint claims that certain companies, who make similar patches, have “innovated their technology based on clinical studies to ensure that their lidocaine patches reliably adhere to a consumer’s body, even while [the consumer is] exercising, upon information and belief, [Kroger] has not.”
It asserts that the claims that the patches provide “Up to 8 Hours of Relief” is misleading because the patches peel off the body far sooner than that. This misleading impression is reinforced by the directions for the product which say to “remove patch from the skin after at most 8 hours of application.”
The complaint claims, “The result of the failure to adhere to the [users’] bodies is that the Product does not deliver the ‘Maximum Strength’ amount of lidocaine in patch form.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Kroger “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches Fall Off Complaint
May 23, 2022
A number of pharmaceutical companies make lidocaine patches for paint relief. To provide this relief, they must be attached to the users’ bodies. The complaint for this class action alleges that the “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches sold by the Kroger Company peel off the body too easily, thus keeping them from providing the advertised relief.
Kroger “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches Fall Off ComplaintCase Event History
Kroger “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches Fall Off Complaint
May 23, 2022
A number of pharmaceutical companies make lidocaine patches for paint relief. To provide this relief, they must be attached to the users’ bodies. The complaint for this class action alleges that the “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches sold by the Kroger Company peel off the body too easily, thus keeping them from providing the advertised relief.
Kroger “Maximum Strength” Lidocaine Patches Fall Off Complaint