Federal Judge Tosses The First AndroGel Bellwether Verdict

Federal Judge Tosses The First AndroGel Bellwether Verdict

Introduction

The first AndroGel bellwether trial announced in favor of the plaintiff awarding him $150 million as punitive damages and no compensatory damages in June 2017 was tossed by the U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, overseeing 6,000 plus testosterone replacement lawsuits centralized under MDL 2545 (In re: Testosterone Replacement Therapy Products Liability Litigation). The $150 million verdict was announced to punish AbbVie for its conduct in spite of acknowledging that the plaintiff’s heart attack was not caused by AbbVie’s product in question. This decision was based on the fact that the federal judge found the jury conclusions “logically incompatible.’’ He further ordered a new trial for this case to be convened on March 5, with a pretrial status conference scheduled for February 28th.