CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge overseeing the testosterone replacement therapy multidistrict litigation on Aug. 6 denied a plaintiff’s motion for a new trial, finding that defendant Actavis Inc. did not impermissibly introduce a warning label for a different drug or hold back a relevant Food and Drug Administration letter.
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California state court judge on Aug. 4 confirmed a tentative ruling denying Janssen Global Services LLC’s motion for $1.3 million in costs in California’s opioid lawsuit against the drug maker, finding that due to a settlement, California is the prevailing party and Janssen is due no costs.
HELENA, Mont. — A unanimous panel of the Montana Supreme Court on Aug. 8 affirmed a trial court’s preliminary injunction against three state laws that restrict abortions, including medication abortions, and on Aug. 9 separately said the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s post-argument abortion ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization can be aired in the trial court.
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge on Aug. 12 denied CVS Health Corp.’s motion to dismiss its insurers’ lawsuits disputing coverage for underlying opioid litigation, finding that CVS has failed to satisfy the “overwhelming hardship” standard that governs its motion to dismiss under forum non conveniens.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office on Aug. 11 issued a press release announcing an opioid settlement with pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. that “may add up to $30 million.”
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 10 affirmed summary judgment for C.R. Bard Inc. in an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter case, agreeing with a district court that the device warning label warned of the complications the plaintiff claims to have suffered and that state law did not require the manufacturer to list the comparative risk of the device.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 9 reversed summary judgment in a False Claims Act lawsuit involving billing for a wound-healing medical device, saying there are triable issues of materiality and scienter that should be decided by a jury.
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 8 affirmed summary judgment in a pelvic mesh case, agreeing with a district court that under New York state law, the plaintiff’s three-year statute of limitations began to run when she first noticed symptoms and not when she learned that alleged cause of her injuries.
SAN FRANCISCO — Following a two-month bench trial, a California federal judge on Aug. 10 issued findings of fact and conclusions of law that pharmacy chain Walgreen Co. is liable for creating a public nuisance in San Francisco by failing, for 15 years, to resolve “red flags” for suspicious opioid prescriptions, resulting in an opioid epidemic that the city had to deal with.
DUBLIN, Ireland — Drug and medical device maker and opioid defendant Endo International PLC on Aug. 9 said in a regulatory filing that as a result of not being able to settle “thousands” of opioid lawsuits, it expects that negotiations with first-lien creditors and other parties “will likely result in a pre-arranged filing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code . . . which could occur imminently.”
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal jury on Aug. 3 found Eli Lilly & Co. liable for $61.22 million in a trial in which a whistleblower alleged that the drug company underpaid Medicare drug rebates to the federal government.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Aug 4 ordered that 40 federal lawsuits involving the Gardasil human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine be centralized, a move that manufacturing defendant Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC had told the court would be “unprecedented” in the history of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (the Vaccine Act).
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. have reached a tentative agreement to pay $400 million to settle opioid claims by West Virginia cities and counties, according to Aug. 1 statements by the state attorney general and the state’s outside counsel.
JACKSON, Miss. — A company that makes a generic version of the abortifacient mifepristone on July 21 moved to file an amended complaint arguing that Mississippi’s near-total ban of the abortion drug is constitutionally illegal and barred by a 2014 federal court ruling involving another state’s attempted ban of one opioid drug.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge on July 25 denied summary judgment on all but one claim by three whistleblowers who allege that orthopedic device maker Exactech Inc. caused false claims to be submitted to government health care programs when the defendant failed to recall a problematic knee implant or to tell the Food and Drug Administration or doctors about the problem.
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 25 affirmed a trial court ruling that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not have to find “corrupt” intent before finding that a co-pay assistance program for an expensive heart drug made by Pfizer Inc. violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) because the manufacturer payment would practically eliminate the statutory requirement that Medicare patients contribute toward the price of their drugs.
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 29 affirmed a decision by the EpiPen multidistrict litigation court that Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC (Sanofi) could not show that Mylan Inc. monopolized the epinephrine autoinjector market without evidence of actual or threatened consumer harm.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee state court judge who had his default judgment against opioid maker Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. overturned for judicial misconduct on July 26 was suspended by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct for his actions in that case and in an adoption case.
SAN FRANCISCO — A prescription drug distributor insured on July 27 filed a notice of appeal in a federal California court asking the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review the lower court’s ruling that underlying lawsuits prompted by the opioid epidemic fail to allege an “accident” under California law.