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Mealey's Drugs & Devices

  • October 16, 2025

    Federal Magistrate Judge Sets Bellwether Selection Deadlines In Defective Port MDL

    SAN DIEGO — With close to half of the cases pending in the multidistrict litigation alleging that chemotherapy ports were defective and caused a multitude of injuries subject to motions to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds, a federal magistrate judge in California outlined a bellwether selection protocol and schedule for the remaining cases.

  • October 16, 2025

    Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

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

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge: Experts On Design, Future Medical Needs Can Testify In Broken Walker Case

    PHILADELPHIA — The manufacturer of a Rollator walker that a woman says collapsed unexpectedly and caused her to injure her shoulder lost its bid for summary judgment after a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled that the woman’s experts are qualified to testify about design defects and future medical costs.

  • October 15, 2025

    Georgia Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal Of Publix’s Declaratory Relief Claim

    ATLANTA — A lower Georgia court properly dismissed a supermarket chain’s complaint for declaratory relief that it filed after discovering that a Georgia county hired outside counsel to help represent it in the national prescription opioid multidistrict litigation, a Georgia appeals court said, agreeing that the chain failed to state a claim for relief.

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge: Lilly Fails To Connect Online Ads For Compounded Tirzepatide To Delaware

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal appellate judge, sitting by designation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, found that Eli Lilly & Co. failed to connect a compounding pharmacy’s online ads to Delaware and dismissed Lilly’s suit alleging false and deceptive online advertising without prejudice.

  • October 15, 2025

    PBMs Seek Rehearing Of Decision That California’s Opioid Case Was Properly Remanded

    SAN FRANCISCO — A decision by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that found that the federal officer removal statute does not bar removal of a public nuisance suit filed by California against a group of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) for their role in contributing to the opioid epidemic is in direct conflict with precedent from the Ninth Circuit, other circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, the PBMs argue in a petition for rehearing.

  • October 14, 2025

    Suboxone Judge Tells Parties To Explain Failure To Comply With Discovery Order

    CLEVELAND — The judge overseeing the Suboxone film multidistrict litigation told certain parties, both plaintiffs and defendants, to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with a discovery order and ordered them to appear at a show-cause hearing on Oct. 30.

  • October 14, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Petition Arguing Court Erred In Finding Stem Cells Are Drugs

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 14 denied a petition for certiorari filed by a stem cell clinic and its owners, who argued that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that a stem cell mixture used by clinics is a drug under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).

  • October 13, 2025

    Supplement Labeling Suit Preempted By Federal Law, 9th Circuit Says

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a putative class action lawsuit accusing a dietary supplement maker of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after finding the suit preempted because it is based on alleged violations of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), while a concurring judge questioned if circuit court precedents on such claims can be reconciled.

  • October 13, 2025

    Man Argues Court Erred In Awarding Surgical Stapler Maker Summary Judgment

    RICHMOND, Va. — A district court decision to award summary judgment to the manufacturer of a surgical stapler “rested on two key erroneous facts,” a man who alleges he was injured by the defective stapler argues in his opening brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • October 10, 2025

    Judge: Man Injured By COVID Vaccine May Not Sue HHS To Put Shot On Injury Table

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Finding that a man claiming to have suffered a blood clotting disorder as a consequence of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine could achieve redress only via an act of Congress and, therefore, had no standing to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to force it to add the vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table (VIT), a District of Columbia federal judge granted the federal government’s motion to dismiss.

  • October 09, 2025

    Man Files Class Action, Alleges Sleeping Supplement Contained Addictive Sedative

    ATLANTA — A recovering addict who unknowingly consumed a psychoactive sedative while taking a dietary supplement for sleep has filed a putative class action in a Georgia federal court, alleging that the label failed to list the sedative, which is banned in the United States; he also seeks to represent a subclass of California consumers alleging violation of the state’s unfair competition law (UCL) (Jason McCool v. Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., No. 25-5668, N.D. Ga.).

  • October 09, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL, Pending In Fla. Federal Court, Heads To New York For Conference

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — The next case management conference for the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, will be held in New York, the Florida federal judge who is overseeing the cases said Oct. 8.

  • October 09, 2025

    Women Alleging Embryo Tests Were Faulty Say Clinic’s Dismissal Motion Fails

    DENVER — A fertility clinic company that moved to dismiss a complaint filed by a putative class of women who say the company made false and misleading representations to consumers about its preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) mischaracterized the “straightforward consumer fraud case” as a medical malpractice action, the women say in opposing the motion.

  • October 08, 2025

    9th Circuit Finds Dismissal Of Claims Was Error, But Jurisdiction Not Met

    SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in dismissing product liability claims brought by former members of the U.S. military who allege that they were injured after ingesting military-prescribed mefloquine products, an anti-malarial medication, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in an Oct. 7 unpublished opinion, finding that the political question doctrine does not apply.

  • October 07, 2025

    OptumRx Argues Deposition In Opioid MDL Should Be Put On Hold To Avoid Duplication

    CLEVELAND — A pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) in the nationwide opioid multidistrict litigation on Oct. 6 objected to a ruling by the special master overseeing the MDL denying its motion for a protective order regarding a deposition that the PBM says will give counsel for the plaintiffs “two bites at the apple.”

  • October 07, 2025

    Law Firm In Thalidomide Cases Says Sanctions Not Warranted, No Misconduct

    PHILADELPHIA — A law firm and its managing partner, who represented plaintiffs who claimed that they suffered birth defects as a result of their mothers being given the drug thalidomide to treat morning sickness during their pregnancies, tell a Pennsylvania federal judge in response to a show cause order that sanctions are not warranted for the firm’s alleged misconduct during the litigation, which began in 2011.

  • October 07, 2025

    Woman Says Dupixent Caused T-Cell Lymphoma, Death Of Her Mother, Sues Drugmakers

    NASHVILLE — A daughter has sued the manufacturers of Dupixent, a prescription medication used for the treatment of asthma and inflammatory skin conditions, in a Tennessee federal court, alleging that her mother died of T-cell lymphoma that was caused by the injection of the drug and that the drugmakers failed to warn about the risk.

  • October 03, 2025

    Texas Federal Judge Sends Mifepristone Case To Missouri Federal Court

    AMARILLO, Texas — Because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the original plaintiffs in a case challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy, lacked standing, a Texas federal judge found that Missouri, Idaho and Kansas did not intervene in a jurisdictionally valid case and that transfer of the case to a Missouri federal court is proper.

  • October 02, 2025

    Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

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

  • October 02, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL Judge Rejects Woman’s Remand Motion, Dismisses Pharmacy

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — Illinois law does not extend a duty to warn to dispensing pharmacies, the federal judge in Florida who is overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation ruled, rejecting a woman’s argument to remand her case to an Illinois state court after it was transferred to the MDL.

  • October 02, 2025

    Relator Appeals Dismissal Of FCA Suit Against Publix Super Markets

    TAMPA, Fla. — An organization comprising two former Publix Super Markets pharmacists that alleges that the grocery chain violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly filling prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances that it knew were improper is appealing to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a Florida federal judge that dismissed its second amended complaint with prejudice.

  • October 01, 2025

    Defective Medical Device Case Heads Back To Missouri State Court After Remand Win

    ST. LOUIS — A medical device manufacturer did not show that its sales representative was fraudulently joined in a design defect case filed in a Missouri state court and removed to federal court, a federal judge in the state ruled Sept. 30, granting a couple’s motion to remand.

  • October 01, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL Judge Hears Arguments On Whether Preemption Laws Bar Cases

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida federal judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, heard oral arguments on whether the claims are preempted by federal law.

  • October 01, 2025

    Calif. Federal Judge Agrees To Trim Claims Against Telehealth Company Sued By Lilly

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge partially granted a motion to dismiss filed by an online telehealth platform that sells compounded versions of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medications, finding that a manufacturer failed to state a claim based on allegations that the compounded drugs are not “safe and effective.”