Watson Pharmaceuticals to Produce Documents, Provide Depositions in Fentanyl Patch Death Lawsuit

Attorneys from Dallas' Heygood, Orr & Pearson are announcing a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling that will require executives from Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. WPI and its subsidiary companies to testify under oath and produce key documents as part of a lawsuit over the death of a 37-year-old woman who died while using the company's fentanyl patch. Attorney Michael Heygood represents the parents of Nicole Bristol, who died on Feb. 9, 2008, hours after applying a fentanyl patch manufactured by Corona, Calif.-based Watson. Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic painkiller that is often applied by a time-released adhesive patch. The drug is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and often prescribed for chronic pain.