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Mealey's Drugs & Devices

  • March 17, 2026

    Depo-Provera MDL Judge Updates Parties On Rapid Increase Of Cases Filed

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — In cases filed in a multidistrict litigation centralized in a Florida federal court, as well as cases that remain in various state courts, more than 3,700 plaintiffs allege that Depo-Provera, a long-lasting injectable contraceptive, caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, according to a recent case management order filed in the MDL.

  • March 17, 2026

    Suboxone Makers Say Hundreds Of Plaintiffs Have Failed To Comply With Court Orders

    CLEVELAND — The makers of suboxone film, a prescription drug used to treat opioid use disorder, which are named as defendants in a multidistrict litigation pending in an Ohio federal court, told the court that hundreds of plaintiffs have failed to comply with a case management order (CMO) and asked the court to order those plaintiffs to show cause or face dismissal; the defendants filed a separate motion for an order to show cause for health care providers who have not complied with a court order.

  • March 17, 2026

    Parties In Missouri Mifepristone Dispute Ask For Extension To Respond To Motions

    ST. LOUIS — States challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, should have extra time to respond to a motion to stay filed by the federal government and motions to dismiss filed by drug manufacturers that were allowed to intervene in the case, the parties say in a joint motion filed in a Missouri federal court on March 16.

  • March 17, 2026

    Insured Seeks To Dismiss 3 More Insurers From Opioid Epidemic Coverage Suit

    SPARTANBURG, S.C. — An insured filed a stipulation in a South Carolina federal court seeking to dismiss three more insurers from a coverage dispute arising from governmental entities’ underlying lawsuits alleging that it caused or contributed to the opioid crisis by improperly marketing, distributing and selling opioid medications, leaving its excess insurers’ intervenor complaint to proceed.

  • March 16, 2026

    Spinal Cord Device Manufacturers Oppose MDL, Say Centralization Unnecessary

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturers of spinal cord stimulators that plaintiffs in pending cases allege were defective and caused injuries reject calls to centralize the cases in a multidistrict litigation and tell the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) in separate briefs to deny a motion to transfer.

  • March 16, 2026

    High Court To Mull Whether Order Certifying National TPP Class Warrants Review

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court will consider during its March 20 conference a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by two drug companies that argue the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in certifying a national third-party payer (TPP) class of entities that paid for the diabetes drug Actos, the court announced in a March 16 docket entry.

  • March 13, 2026

    Connecticut Federal Judge Ends Consolidation Of Toxic Embryo Solution Cases

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge on March 12 vacated an order that consolidated five cases filed in the court that allege that developing embryos were destroyed by a toxic solution used during fertility-related treatments that was later recalled, after two plaintiffs notified the court that they have reached a settlement with the manufacturer of the solution.

  • March 13, 2026

    Pharmaceutical Companies, Woman’s Family Agree To End Case Involving HeLa Cells

    BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge on March 12 ordered a case brought by the family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose medical tissue was taken without her consent in 1951 to create the first immortalized human cell line that has been used in medical developments from the polio vaccine to in vitro fertilization, to be closed after signing off on a joint stipulation to dismiss the remaining defendants with prejudice

  • March 13, 2026

    Women Sue Abbott, FDA Over Allegedly Defective Spinal Cord Stimulator Device

    SAN FRANCISCO — Three women allege that they were injured after being implanted with a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) “that was materially different from what had been tested and originally approved by” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and seek to hold the manufacturer and the agency responsible, according to a complaint filed in a federal court in California.

  • March 12, 2026

    Mass. Case Alleging Suturing Device’s Needle Broke During Surgery Moves Forward

    BOSTON — A woman who alleges that a suturing device’s needle broke off during her surgery made claims that “are not preempted by federal law, and that are supported by sufficient factual allegations to make out viable tort causes of action,” a Massachusetts state court justice held in denying a motion to dismiss filed by the manufacturers.

  • March 12, 2026

    Parties Agree To Terms For Selecting Defective Port MDL Bellwether Cases

    SAN DIEGO — Parties involved in a multidistrict litigation of cases that allege that chemotherapy ports were defective and caused a multitude of injuries agreed to which type of cases will be selected for bellwether cases, according to a joint statement filed in a California federal court.

  • March 12, 2026

    Louisiana, Woman Urge Rejection Of Mifepristone Makers’ Motions To Dismiss

    LAFAYETTE, La. — Louisiana and Rosalie Markezich, a woman who claims she was forced to take mifepristone that was mailed to Louisiana, “have alleged concrete sovereign and economic injuries traceable” to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision to remove the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, they argue in opposition to motions to dismiss filed by the drug’s manufacturers.

  • March 10, 2026

    Novo Nordisk Drops Suit Against Hims, Enters Agreement For Online Sales

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The manufacturer of Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus on March 9 told a Delaware federal court that it agreed to dismiss all claims against Hims & Hers Health Inc. and Hims Inc. (collectively, Hims) stemming from its marketing and sale of compounded semaglutide for weight loss the same day the parties announced a partnership that will allow the sale of those drugs on the online health care provider’s website.

  • March 10, 2026

    CPAP MDL Judge Won’t Reopen Case For Man Who Says He Didn’t Get Court’s Notices

    PITTSBURGH — A man and his attorney were unable to convince the federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices to reopen his case after it was dismissed for failing to respond to orders to show cause.

  • March 09, 2026

    Judge Grants FDA Summary Judgment In Row Over Drug Exclusion From Bulk List

    FORT WORTH, Texas — An outsourcing facility that neither compounds sodium thiosulfate “nor has a facility capable of doing so” lacks standing to challenge a decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decline to add the drug to a list of bulk drug substances approved for compounding, a Texas federal judge ruled in granting summary judgment to the government (FarmaKeio Outsourcing, LLC v. United States Food And Drug Administration, et al., No. 2401040, N.D. Texas, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46434).

  • March 09, 2026

    States Seek To Vacate New CDC Vaccine Recommendations, Advisory Committee Overhaul

    PHOENIX — Contending that the changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations were made without the use of the usual science-based protocols and that recent appointments to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), several states and the governor of Pennsylvania sued the HHS, CDC, Kennedy and other federal officials seeking to set aside the recommendation changes and committee appointments as arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • March 06, 2026

    Merck Waives Right To Respond To High Court Petition Over Untimely Gardasil Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The manufacturer of the Gardasil vaccine on March 5 declined to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court filed by three women who claim that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that the women must first file in the Vaccine Act compensation program before suing in a district court and contend that the addition of the Gardasil vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table was unconstitutional.

  • March 05, 2026

    Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

    New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.

  • March 05, 2026

    Teva Renews Interlocutory Appeal Motion On Preemption In Paragard IUD MDL

    ATLANTA — Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. renewed its motion to certify an order for interlocutory appeal to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a ruling in the Paragard intrauterine device (IUD) multidistrict litigation that information can retroactively apply as newly acquired information under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s changes-being-effected (CBE) regulation.

  • March 05, 2026

    FDA Files Supplemental Brief In Row Over Its Rules For Mifepristone Dispensing

    LAFAYETTE, La. — The federal government outlined the procedure for how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can issue interim orders if it obtains information about drugs that have been previously approved in response to a request for supplemental briefs by the Louisiana federal judge overseeing a case brought by the state and one of its residents that challenges the validity of the FDA’s 2023 decision to remove the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone.

  • March 05, 2026

    Parties Say Other Side In Public Nuisance Opioid Case Gets 4th Circuit Opinion Wrong

    HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Three national drug distributors and two West Virginia counties that sued them for causing a public nuisance through their over-distribution of opioids filed separate briefs with a West Virginia federal court, both arguing that the other side misunderstands a decision by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that remanded the case to the district court.

  • March 04, 2026

    Sanofi Gets Interlocutory Appeal For Preemption Question In Taxotere Eye Injury MDL

    NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving cases alleging that a chemotherapy drug caused eye injuries granted an unopposed motion filed by the manufacturer to certify an order for interlocutory appeal of the denial of its motion for summary judgment on preemption grounds.

  • March 04, 2026

    1st Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Boston’s Opioid Suit Against PBMs As Time-Barred

    BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that dismissed Boston’s claims against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for contributing to the opioid epidemic as time-barred and further ruled that the lower court did not err in refusing to disqualify Motley Rice LLC from representing Boston and others in the suit.

  • March 03, 2026

    Judge Dismisses Complaint Alleging Abbott Shared Medical Data With Google, Meta

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 2 dismissed with prejudice a complaint filed by three individuals who alleged that the manufacturer of continuous glucose monitoring devices for diabetes management shared sensitive information about them to third parties through tracking tools on its website.

  • March 03, 2026

    Judge Gives Final Approval To $7.75M Settlement In Stock-Drop Class Action

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a $7.75 million settlement in a class action brought by investors against a biopharmaceutical company and certain of its current and former executives that alleged that the defendants made false and misleading statements that caused the company’s stock price to drop and investors to lose money.