What Happened In The MassTorts World Last Week? 2019-Apr-08
First Taxotere Bellwether Trial Postponed To September 2019
In a case management order issued on March 22, U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo, presiding over all Taxotere hair loss lawsuits, indicated that the start of the first bellwether trial was delayed until September 16, 2019.
The first five bellwether cases were scheduled to go before the jury on May 13, 2019, and additional cases were scheduled for September 16, 2019; January 27, 2020; May 11, 2020; and September 14, 2020. Taxotere manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis faces some 12,000 product liability claims that it failed to warn about the risks of hair loss from its breast cancer drug, Taxotere, which is not the case with other, equally effective, breast cancer treatments. Though hair loss is a possible side effect of chemotherapy, the lawsuits blamed Sanofi-Aventis of providing misleading information that the patient's hair would regrow after the treatment. However, Taxotere has been reported to cause permanent thinning and balding even long after the treatments are over.
Taxotere lawsuits were centralized in the Eastern District of Louisiana, as part of a federal Multidistrict Litigation, or MDL (MDL No. 2740; In Re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation).
Vietnam Bans Import Of Glyphosate-Based U.S. Herbicides
As the controversial Roundup bellwether trial was closely watched by nations all over the world, Vietnam imposed a ban on the import of glyphosate-based herbicides, after a U.S. court recently ruled that the weed killer played a substantial role in a California man's cancer.
This is the second time Monsanto was found liable for failing to warn about cancer risks of its Roundup products. One of Vietnam's daily newspaper head stated that they issued a document to ban new herbicide imports containing glyphosate, as soon as the recent Roundup verdict was out. The country aims to remove the substance from the list of usable herbicides in Vietnam in the near future. Vietnam's Plant Protection Department instructed businesses to stop approving new import contracts for glyphosate-containing herbicides; however, circulation in the country has not been affected by the decision.
The department also asked business owners and individuals to report back on the production, sales, and storage of these herbicides. Reports indicate the country uses nearly 30,000 tons of the chemical every year.
Currently, Bayer, the Roundup manufacturer faces over 9,300 Roundup lawsuits across the United States. All the lawsuits allege the company's product of causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. All the Roundup lawsuits are consolidated into multidistrict litigation in the Northern District of California (MDL No. 2741; In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation).
Defendants Fail To Dismiss Florida AG’s Opioid Lawsuit
In a hearing held in Pasco County, Circuit Judge Declan Mansfield denied defendants' motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., and Walgreen Co. of misleading doctors into prescribing opioids.
Attorney General Ashley Moody stated, "today's ruling ... marks another victory in our fight to end the national opioid crisis claiming 17 lives a day in Florida. Our litigation seeks to hold responsible the major corporations that profited off the pain and suffering of Floridians and to ensure it never happens again." In its amended complaint filed in November 2018, the Florida Attorney General’s Office sued the companies accusing them of selling and shipping an enormous amount of opioids into Florida and indulging in wrong practices to increase opioid prescription rates. The state held the companies responsible for the opioid crisis which was the reason for thousands of overdose deaths in Florida and unfortunate consequences due to opioid addiction, including babies born with an addiction to opioids, children being placed in foster care after parents died due to overdose, chronic addiction, and rise in emergency medical services. Florida's opioid litigation is just one of the many ongoing litigations in the fight against the national opioid crisis.
Sackler Family Attempts To Toss Massachusetts Opioid Lawsuit
Purdue Pharma LP's owners, the billionaire Sackler family, asked a Massachusetts judge to dismiss state Attorney General Maura Healey’s lawsuit which blames them for the national opioid crisis.
In her 300-page complaint, attorney Healey alleged that the family profited $4.2 billion by aggressively marketing OxyContin into the opioid addiction market. However, the Sacklers retorted saying, the attorney failed to prove that individual board members named in the lawsuit, specifically breached the law. Massachusetts is one among the three dozen states that blamed Purdue and other opioid manufacturers and distributors for misleading doctors to prescribe overdoses of opioids, magnifying its benefits and suppressing the risks. Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family recently agreed to pay $270 million to escape a state court trial involving lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma.
Opioid lawsuits are consolidated into a multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) overlooked by Judge Dan Aaron Polster in the Northern District of Ohio.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated new guidelines for monitoring opioid intake as the United States has seen significant growth in the death rate of people due to overdose of the drug. It has also highlighted new protocols for health care professionals to follow while prescribing the drugs.
Defendant Fact Sheet Chartered For Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
According to an order issued on April 1, the federal court overseeing the hernia mesh injury claims, targeted at C.R. Bard's polypropylene products, established protocols associated with the handling of Defendant Fact Sheets (DFS) for all cases included in the litigation's bellwether trial pool.
The order stated DFS for 12 cases must be submitted to the court on or prior to April 25, 2019. However, the order also specified defendants could request a 7-day extension for submitting a form, which the plaintiffs cannot withhold without a specific reason. Additionally, the order outlined procedures to resolve disputes when Plaintiffs’ Counsel claims a DFS to be insufficient, and the steps they must follow when a defendant fails to submit a completed form before the deadline expires. All information disclosed in a DFS, the form itself, and all related documents (including healthcare information) will be kept confidential as per the order. Last month, 12 lawsuits were shortlisted to be included in the bellwether trial pool, the court will shortlist three lawsuits among them for early trials in May 2020. These lawsuits will act as a representative case, the outcome of which will provide insight into how different jurors might rule in similar lawsuits filed over complications linked to Bard polypropylene hernia mesh.
There are more than 240 Bard hernia mesh lawsuits pending in the multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2846; In Re: Davol, Inc./C.R. Bard, Inc., Polypropylene Hernia Mesh Products Liability Litigation) formed in the Southern District of Ohio.
Earlier, Judge Edmund A. Sargus who is overlooking all the Bard hernia mesh lawsuits issued a pretrial order in a press conference. The order included a prediction from the plaintiffs' lawyers stating that the manufacturer will face roughly 3,000 claims in the federal MDL by the end of 2019. Another status conference is scheduled for April 17, 2019, for further discussion between the parties.
Pa. Supreme Court Allows Out-of-State Ethicon Mesh Cases
Johnson & Johnson's attempt to get all out-of-state plaintiffs dismissed, from the Ethicon pelvic mesh litigation in Philadelphia, was rejected by an intermediate Pennsylvania appellate court.
In an opinion submitted on April 3, by a three-judge Superior Court panel, it was determined that ties between Ethicon ( a J&J subsidiary) and Secant, a Pennsylvania-based company involved in the pelvic mesh manufacturing, was sufficient to establish jurisdiction in the Keystone state. The decision was in response to J&J's attempt to overturn a December 2017 ruling by the supervising judge of a pelvic mesh mass tort program held in Philadelphia County. The judge had said that since the company was headquartered in New Jersey and had business connections with Pennsylvania, it was an apt venue for out-of-state residents to pursue claims over faulty implants. The recent decision marks the third time the Superior Court has ruled whether the out-of-state claims must be dismissed from Pennsylvania for lack of jurisdiction.
Ethicon faces 90 lawsuits in Philadelphia, where the company has lost to plaintiffs in multi-million dollar verdicts. Pelvic mesh lawsuits targeting at Ethicon are consolidated as a part of multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2327; In Re: Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation) overlooked by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia.