Mealey's Drugs & Devices : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Drugs & Devices

July 18, 2024
CPAP MDL Judge Sets Date For Medical Monitoring Settlement Hearing

PITTSBURGH — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices will hold a final fairness hearing on Oct. 30 on a $25 million settlement to resolve medical monitoring claims in the MDL.
July 18, 2024
Arbitration Agreement Not Binding, But Judge Says Device Claims Preempted

LAKE CHARLES, La. — The legal screen used to set up an app to connect a medical device that detects blood glucose levels to a personal mobile device such as an iPhone did not clearly make a user aware that she was agreeing to arbitrate all claims, a Louisiana federal judge ruled, but he partially granted the manufacturer’s motion to dismiss claims as preempted by federal law.
July 18, 2024
Judge Overseeing Diabetes And Diet Drug MDL OKs Direct Filings Of New Complaints

PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania federal judge newly appointed to oversee the multidistrict litigation involving diabetes and diet drugs that consumers allege caused gastrointestinal and other injuries signed five case management orders, including an order that directs any potential plaintiff to file directly into the MDL.
July 17, 2024
Lawsuit Alleging Injury From Fen-Phen Drugs Survives Motion To Dismiss

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on July 16 found that a woman’s complaint alleging that she was injured after ingesting fen-phen diet drugs “contains plausible failure-to-warn claims” and denied the drug manufacturer’s motion to dismiss.
July 17, 2024
3rd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of 1,189 Shingles Cases For Failure to Prove Causation

PHILADELPHIA — A district court judge did not abuse his discretion in dismissing 1,189 cases in the Zostavax shingles vaccine multidistrict litigation after the plaintiffs failed to provide prima facie evidence that their shingles were caused by the Oka strain of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) used to make the vaccine rather than the “wild-type” of the virus from childhood chickenpox infections, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed July 16.
July 17, 2024
N.J. Federal Judge Remands Case Alleging Injury From CoolSculpting Procedure

NEWARK, N.J. — AbbVie Inc., whose subsidiary manufactured a medical device that a woman claims caused an injury, “failed to carry its heavy burden” of showing that a defendant had been fraudulently joined, a New Jersey federal judge ruled, remanding the case to state court.
July 16, 2024
Georgia Federal Judge Consolidates Claims In Pelvic Mesh Design Defect Case

ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge partially granted a motion by Johnson & Johnson to consolidate several of a woman’s claims that she was injured by the company’s pelvic mesh product and dismissed her manufacturing defect claims.
July 15, 2024
3M Moves To Dismiss Cases That Failed To Substitute Party After Notice Of Death

MINNEAPOLIS — Defendants in the Bair Hugger multidistrict litigation moved to dismiss five plaintiffs with prejudice because in each case, “the plaintiff passed away more than five years ago, and the deadline to move to substitute a new plaintiff has long-since passed.”
July 15, 2024
NECC Pharmacy Founder Barry Cadden Argues His Sentence Should Be Reduced

BOSTON — Former New England Compounding Center (NECC) founder Barry J. Cadden has asked a Massachusetts federal court to reduce his sentence of 174 months for his role in a fungal meningitis outbreak pursuant to a recent amendment to the U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines.
July 12, 2024
Federal Judge Refuses To Dismiss Coverage Dispute Over False Advertising Claims

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California denied a professional liability insurer’s motion to dismiss insureds’ breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for an underlying putative class action alleging that they falsely advertised a penis enlargement device, finding that the court is unable to determine as a matter of law that the insureds’ alleged statements and omissions fail to arise out of work performed by the insureds that involves “specialized training, knowledge and skill in the pursuit of urology, including surgery.”
July 12, 2024
Acetaminophen Autism/ADHD MDL Judge Rejects Admissibility Of New Causation Expert

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge has granted a motion to exclude testimony from an expert opining that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); the expert was retained after the judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation in December found that previously named experts were inadmissible.
July 11, 2024
Rite Aid Agrees To Settle FCA And CSA Claims Stemming From Opioid Prescriptions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice on July 10 reached an agreement with Rite Aid Corp. and 10 subsidiaries and affiliates to settle violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and Controlled Substances Act (CSA), with the pharmacy chain paying $7.5 million and granting the government an unsubordinated, general unsecured claim of $401.8 million in Rite Aid’s bankruptcy case that is pending in the District of New Jersey.
July 11, 2024
Taxotere Eye Injury MDL Judge Denies Accord’s Motion To Dismiss For Untimely Service

NEW ORLEANS — The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation for cases alleging that a chemotherapy drug caused eye injuries denied a motion filed by a drug manufacturer to dismiss a complaint that was included in the bellwether pool for untimely service of process.
July 11, 2024
MDL Sought For Cases Alleging Injuries Stemming From Toxic Embryo Solution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Plaintiffs who sued a manufacturer of a solution used during fertility-related treatments that they claim was toxic and destroyed their developing embryos have asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to centralize the cases for pretrial purposes.
July 09, 2024
Hernia Mesh MDL Judge Orders Stay Of All Cases Pending Possible Settlement

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the Davol hernia mesh multidistrict litigation issued a limited stay at the request of C.R. Bard Inc. and Davol Inc. and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) as they work toward a settlement agreement.
July 09, 2024
Purdue Pharma’s Unsecured Creditors Ask For Permission To Sue Sackler Family

NEW YORK — The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on July 8 asked the New York federal bankruptcy judge overseeing Purdue Pharma LP’s bankruptcy case to grant it sole derivative standing so it can sue Purdue Pharma’s owners — members of the Sackler family and their trusts and affiliates — after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code allows a liability release for members of the family in a multibillion-dollar opioid bankruptcy settlement reached by Purdue Pharma.
July 09, 2024
Medical Journal Finds Possible Link Between GLP-1 Drugs, Blindness

BOSTON — A recent study published in the JAMA Ophthalmology found a potential link between semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA), and an increased risk of a significant cause of blindness among adults.
July 08, 2024
Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Reduced Attorney Fees In CoolSculpting Case

ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge in Florida recommended that attorney fees for counsel who successfully defended a company in a design defect case be reduced from the counsel’s request after finding “that employing 15 attorneys and four paralegals for this matter, and requesting over $1 million in fees for a 13-month period, to be excessive on its face.”
July 08, 2024
Merck Says 3 Gardasil Cases Must Be Dismissed On Jurisdictional Grounds

STATESVILLE, N.C. — Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC tells the court overseeing the Gardasil multidistrict litigation that plaintiffs opposing its motion to dismiss “yet again ask this Court to interpret the Vaccine Act in a way that, so far as Merck is aware, no court ever has.”
July 05, 2024
PBMs Lose Battle To Keep County’s Opioid Suit In New York Federal Court

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on July 4 granted Nassau County’s motion to remand its suit against various companies for their roles in the opioid crisis, saying two pharmacy benefits managers failed to persuade her that she should retain jurisdiction.
July 03, 2024
Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
June 28, 2024
COMMENTARY: Courts Must, As Recently Reminded, Follow The Law In Rule 702 Expert Testimony Determinations

By Erin Sheley
July 02, 2024
Parties Debate How Alliance Changes Right Of States To Intervene In Related Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Parties in an appeal pending in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on whether a lower court erred in refusing to allow a group of anti-abortion states to intervene in a case filed by other states and the District of Columbia that sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to block any changes to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone and subsequent changes to its prescribing practices filed supplemental briefs to opine on how a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision impacts their arguments.
July 02, 2024
Ohio Federal Judge Partially Dismisses Defective Chemotherapy Port Device Case

CLEVELAND — A federal judge in Ohio partially granted a motion to dismiss filed by a medical device maker facing charges from a woman who claims that a defective SmartPort device caused her to develop an infection.
July 02, 2024
Hernia Mesh MDL Judge Refuses To Seal Motion On Possible Settlement Terms

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the Davol hernia mesh multidistrict litigation on July 1 said defendants and counsel representing a group of plaintiffs cannot file under seal a motion to establish a qualified settlement fund.