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

Mealey's Drugs & Devices

January 10, 2024
CPAP Plaintiffs’ Counsel Ask For $95M In Attorney Fees As Part Of Settlement

PITTSBURGH — Plaintiffs’ counsel in a multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices and respirators have asked the court to approve $95 million for attorney fees and costs in connection with the settlement reached to end all economic claims.
January 09, 2024
Philips Says SoClean Products Destroyed Foam In CPAP Machines, Not FDA-Approved

PITTSBURGH — Koninklijke Philips NV and its affiliates answered a complaint filed against it by the manufacturer of equipment that uses ozone to clean or disinfect CPAP devices and accessories and filed counterclaims alleging that SoClean Inc. “has known all about the destructive properties of ozone for years” and that its sale of the products violated federal law.
January 08, 2024
Anti-Abortion States Say FDA, Danco Wrong In Objections To Motion To Intervene

AMARILLO, Texas — The three states that moved to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone and misoprostol say the arguments that intervention should be denied “rest on a string of dubious speculations and the strange assertion that it would be more convenient to the Federal Government to litigate in multiple forums.”
January 08, 2024
9th Circuit Denies Rehearing, Files Amended Opinion In FCA Drug Pricing Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 5 denied a petition for a panel rehearing and a rehearing en banc, issuing an amended opinion of its decision reversing a district court’s dismissal of a relator’s qui tam suit alleging violations of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) against pharmaceutical companies related to their alleged fraud by artificially inflating drug prices, finding “that the qualifying public disclosures here do not collectively disclose a combination of facts sufficient to permit a reasonable inference of fraud.”
January 08, 2024
Couples Sue Embryo Solution Manufacturer For Claims Related To Recalled Product

LOS ANGELES — Two couples filed separate complaints in a California court against the manufacturer of a solution used during fertility-related treatments that they claim was toxic and destroyed their developing embryos.
January 04, 2024
9th Circuit Finds No Discrimination In Policy For Filling Opioid Prescriptions

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that a district court properly dismissed a woman’s class action that alleged that Walgreens’ policy for dispensing opioid prescriptions was discriminatory against the disabled.
January 04, 2024
Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
January 03, 2024
Pharmaceutical Company To Pay $6M To End Kickback Claims In Marketing Plan

BOSTON — Pharmaceutical company Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. will pay $6 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) in its marketing efforts for its drug Crysvita, which treats a rare inherited disorder.
January 03, 2024
Judge Wolfson Appointed Special Master In Prescription Saving Program Dispute

NEWARK, N.J. — Freda L. Wolfson, who in early 2023 retired as a chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, has been appointed special master in a case pending in the District Court in which a Johnson & Johnson affiliate alleges that a prescription saving program improperly offloads costs onto the drugmaker’s discount drug program.
January 02, 2024
Ozempic Manufacturer Says Consolidation In MDL Is Appropriate

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Novo Nordisk A/S, the manufacturer of Ozempic, tells the U.S. Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) that consolidation of cases from consumers who allege that they suffered gastrointestinal and other injuries from diabetes and diet drugs in a multidistrict litigation is proper but argues that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina is a more appropriate venue than the one suggested by the plaintiffs.
January 02, 2024
McKinsey To Pay $78 Million To Settle Third-Party Payers’ Claims In MDL

SAN FRANCISCO — McKinsey & Co. Inc. has agreed to pay $78 million to settle claims from third-party payers (TPP) in an opioid multidistrict litigation.
December 22, 2023
Zantac Maker, Retailer: Petition Does Not Address Question On Circuit Split

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturer of Zantac and a retailer in a Dec. 21 opposition brief tell the U.S. Supreme Court that it should deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a woman appealing the dismissal of her case and asking the high court to settle a jurisdictional question that has split the circuit courts because the “‘question presented’ is not actually presented in this case.”
December 22, 2023
JPMDL Schedules Hearing To Decide On Creation Of Suboxone MDL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will meet in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Jan. 25 to decide, among other petitions, whether to consolidate for pretrial purposes cases that allege that Suboxone film, a prescription drug used to treat opioid use disorder, causes extensive dental decay.
December 22, 2023
Citing CPAP Recall, Senators Ask For Update On FDA’s Process On Oversight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two senators sent a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking for an update to its 2011 report on “Medical Devices: FDA Should Enhance Its Oversight of Recalls” in light of the rising amount of recalls and adverse event reports, citing the recall of approximately 10.8 million Philips continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices and respirators.
December 21, 2023
Louisiana Federal Judge Won’t Stay Diabetes Drug Case Pending MDL Decision

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana federal judge denied a motion filed by the manufacturer of Ozempic to stay proceedings while the parties await a decision on whether similar cases will be consolidated in a multidistrict litigation.
December 21, 2023
JPMDL Hearing On Diabetes Drug MDL Scheduled; Deadline For Response Extended

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) granted a motion for an extension to respond to a motion filed by attorneys representing nine individuals who allege that they suffered gastrointestinal and other injuries from diabetes and diet drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro who want to transfer all currently filed and any subsequently filed cases and centralize them in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
December 21, 2023
Pa. Woman Accuses Ozempic Maker Of Deceptive Marketing Of Weight Loss Drug

PHILADELPHIA — A woman alleges in a complaint in Pennsylvania federal court that she was injured as a result of a drug manufacturer’s “widespread, deceptive and unfair marketing” of Wegovy and Ozempic and through the use of the diabetes and weight loss drugs (Laura Marrero v. Novo Nordisk A/S, et al., No. 23-5036, E.D. Pa.).
December 20, 2023
Amendments To Rule 702 For Expert Witness Testimony Go Into Effect

Amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, Fed. R. Evid. 702, went into effect to clarify how courts should decide the admissibility of expert testimony.
December 20, 2023
Causation Experts Found Inadmissible In Acetaminophen Autism/ADHD MDL

NEW YORK — The New York federal judge overseeing the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation found that the general causation experts retained by plaintiffs alleging that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes the disorders are inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
December 20, 2023
1st Circuit Affirms Conviction, Fines For 2 Execs Convicted Of Off-Label Marketing

BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected arguments from former Acclarent Inc. executives who argued on appeal that their convictions for distributing and misbranding medical devices sold in interstate commerce violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that the district court erred in its instructions to the jury.
December 19, 2023
Health Care Tech Company Settles FCA Claims Over Heart Monitoring Fraud For $14.7M

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Dec. 18 announced that BioTelemetry Inc. and its subsidiary LifeWatch Services Inc. have agreed to pay more than $14.7 million to resolve claims that they violated the federal False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly submitting claims to government insurers for a higher level of remote cardiac monitoring than intended by physicians or that was medically necessary, resulting in higher reimbursements to LifeWatch.
December 19, 2023
Excluded Expert Witness Can’t Testify As Fact Witness In Device Injury Case

PHOENIX — A man alleging that a defective “metal-on-metal” hip replacement device caused an injury cannot present as a fact witness a person who has been excluded from testifying as an expert witness, an Arizona federal judge ruled, agreeing to strike his testimony.
December 14, 2023
Judge Grants Manufacturer Summary Judgment In Remanded Prosthetic Shoulder Case

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana again awarded summary judgment to the manufacturer of a shoulder prosthesis after the case was remanded by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which vacated the previous summary judgment decision after finding that the question of whether the plaintiff’s claim had prescribed under Louisiana state law is “best left for the jury.”
December 14, 2023
Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
December 14, 2023
Suboxone Film Manufacturers Agree That MDL Coordination Is Needed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturer of Suboxone film facing allegations that the prescription drug used to treats opioid use disorder caused extensive dental decay agreed in responses to a motion for transfer that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation should consolidate the cases for pretrial purposes.