Walgreen Lidocaine Patches Strength and Adhesion Promises Class Action

Lidocaine is a pain-relieving substance that blocks pain signals. Walgreen Co. offers over-the-counter lidocaine patches that customers can apply to the skin to relieve pain. But the complaint for this class action alleges that the packages of some of these patches are misleadingly labeled, because they claim to provide a “Maximum Strength” dose of lidocaine that will be “Staying-put” for “up to 12 hours.” According to the complaint, the patches often peel off much more quickly and do not deliver a “maximum strength” dose of the medicine.

The class for this action is all persons in the US who bought Walgreen’s lidocaine patches. A New York Subclass has also been proposed for class members who bought the patches in New York.

The lidocaine patches at issue include

• Pain Relieving Lidocaine Patch (5 patches)
• Pain Relieving Lidocaine Patch (6 patches)
• Pain Relieving Lidocaine Patches
• Cool n’ Heat Lidocaine Patch

The complaint describes lidocaine as “a topical anesthetic that is used to treat pain by blocking the transmission of pain signals from nerve endings in the skin to the spinal cord and brain.”

According to the complaint, the boxes for the patches claim that they contain a “Maximum Strength” dose of lidocaine, that they are “Stay-put flexible,” and that a consumer can use “One patch for up to 12 hours.”

The plaintiff in this case, Delenator Stevens, took this to mean that he could wear the patches for twelve hours and that they would deliver a high dosage of lidocaine for that period of time.

However, according to the complaint, he found that the patches peeled off in well under twelve hours, when he was doing ordinary things such as walking, sitting, stretching, and sleeping, sometimes within an hour or two of application.

In addition to the promise of adherence, the complaint alleges that the promise that the patch supplies “Maximum Strength” medication, without disclaimers, is false. The complaint claims that “in fact, there are superior lidocaine patches in the market that deliver a higher amount of lidocaine: including … 5% and 1.8% prescription-strength lidocaine patches.”

According to the complaint, the promise that the patches contain 4% lidocaine is also misleading: “Specifically, [Walgreen’s] representation that its Lidocaine Patches contain 4% lidocaine is misleading because the actual strength of a lidocaine patch is measured by the ‘mass of drug relative to the mass of the adhesive patch.’”

In fact, the complaint claims that the “Maximum Strength” product “has the exact specifications and delivers the same amount of lidocaine as its non-maximum-strength ‘Pain Relieving Lidocaine Patch (5 patches)’—both Patches weigh 9 grams per patch and contain a lidocaine dose of 4 grams for every 100 grams.”

“Further,” the complaint alleges, “both of [Walgreen’s] Maximum Strength Lidocaine Patches contain less lidocaine than other over-the-counter lidocaine patches: which range from 411.1 to 4,500 milligrams.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Contains Too Little of Featured Ingredients, Deceptive Advertising, Deceptive Labels, Item Does Not Do What It Is Advertised to Do