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September 03, 2026
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Granting a trade association’s motion for a preliminary injunction, an Illinois federal judge enjoined the Illinois Department of Insurance from enforcing a state law’s reporting requirements against the association’s members that are pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) serving health plans sponsored by employers and unions that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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September 03, 2026
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The federal judge in Arkansas overseeing the multidistrict litigation alleging that a synthetic cartilage implant device used to treat arthritis in a toe joint was defective appointed counsel to leadership positions following an initial management conference.
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September 03, 2026
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
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September 03, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The generic manufacturer of mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, argues to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a case, which is scheduled for oral argument on Sept. 9, “is fundamentally flawed because Louisiana lacks standing” to bring the case asserting that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision that removed the in-person dispensing requirement for the drug was unconstitutional.
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September 03, 2026
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi failed to show that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) accused by the state of contributing to its opioid epidemic did not meet the three requirements for the district court to certify for interlocutory appeal its order that denied the PBMs’ motion to dismiss the state’s public nuisance claim, a group of PMBs argue.
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September 03, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge dismissed with prejudice a couple’s Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA) claims alleging that a Zoll Medical Corp. LifeVest malfunctioned and delivered inappropriate shocks, finding that they failed to plead state law claims that parallel federal requirements governing the premarket-approved Class III medical device.
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September 02, 2026
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 1 ordered the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the opioid multidistrict litigation to respond to a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) challenging an order allowing 800 plaintiffs to amend their complaints to add claims against the PBMs.
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September 02, 2026
WICHITA FALLS, Texas — A Texas federal judge held that Florida and Texas, which challenge federal actions involving the abortion drug mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, have standing to sue, denying motions to dismiss filed by two drug manufacturers but granting the federal government’s request for a temporary stay while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviews the challenged actions.
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September 02, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — Walmart Inc. has agreed to a $50 million settlement to resolve allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that the company’s pharmacies illegally filled thousands of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the government announced. A Delaware federal court ordered the case closed after the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal.
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September 01, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in separate unpublished decisions, affirmed summary judgment for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in challenges to the agency’s removal of tirzepatide and semaglutide, FDA-approved drugs for diabetes and weight loss, from its drug shortage list, finding that any failure to use notice-and-comment procedures was harmless and that the agency’s shortage determinations were not arbitrary or capricious.
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August 28, 2026
CHICAGO — Saying the appeal required “a straightforward application of one Supreme Court precedent, and a careful analysis of another,” the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a suit that sought a declaration that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act preempted two parts of a state regulation implementing the Arkansas Pharmacy Benefits Manager Licensure Act.
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August 27, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Novo Nordisk Inc., facing an insulin pen product liability action filed by a hospital system, asks a federal court to certify orders that “involve two controlling questions of Connecticut law that will materially advance the ultimate resolution of this case” to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals while its motion for reconsideration of one of those orders is pending.
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August 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Plaintiffs alleging injuries from spinal cord stimulators manufactured by Nevro LLC and Globus Medical Inc. will argue Sept. 24 before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) in support of centralizing the cases, while the manufacturers argued in their opposition brief that centralization will delay rather than streamline the cases.
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August 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will hear arguments Sept. 24 on a request to centralize federal injury cases involving Abbott Laboratories’ spinal cord stimulators, months after the panel rejected an earlier request to centralize claims against Abbott, Boston Scientific Corp. and other device manufacturers in a single proceeding.
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August 26, 2026
GULFPORT, Miss. — Noting that he is “bound by” a “prior decision that the presumption against preemption applies” to Mississippi’s Defending Affordable Prescription Drug Costs Act, a federal judge in Mississippi rejected AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP’s claims that the law, which regulates the distribution of drugs purchased through the federal 340B program, is preempted by federal law, granting summary judgment to the state and dismissing the drugmaker’s complaint with prejudice.
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August 20, 2026
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
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August 20, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a district court erred in part in rejecting Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of labeling for generic tasimelteon and directed the court to remand the matter to the agency without vacating the approval.
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August 20, 2026
DENVER — Women who allege that a company made false and misleading representations to consumers about its preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) have failed to show that the “extraordinary remedy” of reconsideration under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e) is warranted, the company tells a Colorado federal court.
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August 20, 2026
JACKSON, Miss. — Pharmacy benefit managers accused by Mississippi of contributing to the state’s opioid epidemic have asked a federal judge to certify for interlocutory appeal a June ruling allowing the state’s public nuisance claim to proceed, saying the case presents an unsettled question of Mississippi law on which courts elsewhere are divided.
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August 19, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge dismissed without leave to amend a man’s lawsuit alleging that the prescription drug Rezurock caused severe dermatologic injuries, finding his claims untimely and that the majority of his claims are preempted by federal law.
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August 19, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Novo Nordisk Inc. has failed to identify any controlling law or overlooked facts warranting reconsideration of a ruling denying it summary judgment in an insulin pen product liability action, Griffin Health Services Corp. tells a Connecticut federal court in an objection to a motion for reconsideration, contending that the manufacturer is now seeking “a third opportunity to present a summary judgment argument.”
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August 18, 2026
WATERBURY, Conn. — The Connecticut state judge overseeing consolidated cases alleging that a defective birth control device caused injuries has ruled that federal law preempts design defect claims but does not preempt claims that the company failed to report adverse events to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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August 14, 2026
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Consumers who sued Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. alleging that benzoyl peroxide (BPO) acne products contained or could degrade into benzene should be allowed to proceed with most of their claims, according to findings and recommendations issued Aug. 13 by a California federal magistrate judge, although he said the named plaintiffs lack standing to sue over products they did not purchase and that a “Walgreens Pharmacist Recommended” label is nonactionable puffery.
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August 13, 2026
TACOMA, Wash. — A wrongful death complaint alleging that a defect in an insulin pump caused a man to die from diabetic ketoacidosis should be dismissed with prejudice because the plaintiff fails to “thread the narrow gap between express and implied preemption and plead facts plausibly establishing a federal violation with a ‘parallel’ state-law claim,” the pump manufacturer argues in a motion to dismiss filed in a Washington federal court.
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August 12, 2026
PHOENIX — A cardiac electrophysiologist may testify for the manufacturers of implanted port catheter (IPC) devices that a woman’s post-embolization arrhythmia was a continuation of her preexisting condition and was not caused by a fractured port catheter, the Arizona federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation ruled, denying a motion to exclude filed by a woman whose bellwether trial is set to begin later this month.