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Mealey's Drugs & Devices

  • July 15, 2025

    Delaware Supreme Court Says Expert Testimony Improperly Admitted In Zantac Case

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A lower court “erred in adopting a standard that favored or presumed the admissibility of expert testimony,” the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in an interlocutory appeal, finding that the trial court was wrong to deny a series of motions to exclude testimony from experts who opined that Zantac containing ranitidine can cause 10 types of cancer.

  • July 14, 2025

    First Bellwether Trial In Valsartan MDL To Start In September

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A federal judge presiding over the valsartan/losartan/irbesartan hypertension drugs multidistrict litigation in a New Jersey federal court signed off on an amended case management schedule, setting the stage for the first bellwether trial to begin in September.

  • July 14, 2025

    Case Disputing Attorney Fees In Benicar MDL Sent Back To New Jersey District Court

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 11 sent a dispute over the amount of attorney fees awarded to a law firm for its work in the Benicar multidistrict litigation back to a New Jersey federal court, finding that the lower court erred in denying a motion to remand.

  • July 11, 2025

    Cook County, Ill., Jury Returns Defense Verdict In Zantac Injury Case

    CHICAGO — An Illinois jury returned a verdict for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., rejecting arguments from a man who alleged that his prostate cancer was caused by ingesting over-the-counter Zantac.

  • July 11, 2025

    Judge Finds Securities Claims Against Medical Technology Company Lack Scienter

    TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey dismissed a putative securities class action brought by pension funds against a medical device and technology company for alleged misstatements regarding efforts to address deficient manufacturing conditions at the company’s Boston facility, finding the pension funds did not plead “a strong inference of scienter.”

  • July 11, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL Judge: Disclose All Third-Party Litigation Funding Deals

    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, ordered all plaintiffs and their counsel to disclose any third-party litigation funding agreements.

  • July 10, 2025

    Ky. Federal Judge Denies Series Of Motions To Exclude Experts In Pelvic Mesh Case

    LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky federal judge presiding over a long-running case against a pelvic mesh manufacturer denied three separate motions to exclude experts filed by the manufacturer and a woman who says she was injured by the mesh.

  • July 10, 2025

    Norfolk, Va., Says PBMs, Manufacturers Worked Together To Raise Insulin Prices

    NEWARK, N.J. — The manufacturers of nearly all insulins and other diabetes medications available in the United States worked in concert with pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) to drive up the price of insulin and related medications, Norfolk, Va., alleges in a complaint filed July 9 in a New Jersey district court.

  • July 09, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Recommends Dismissal Of Case Alleging Weight Loss Drug Injuries

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While recognizing that woman’s “pro se status affords her with some measure of leniency from the Court,” a Tennessee federal magistrate judge on July 8 recommended that a motion for summary judgment filed by employees of a compounding pharmacy be granted and that a complaint alleging injuries from medication taken for weight loss be dismissed.

  • July 09, 2025

    Washington Federal Judge Rules That FDA’s Restrictions On Mifepristone Can Stand

    YAKIMA, Wash. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to add Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) restrictions on mifepristone, one of the two drugs prescribed for medication abortions, was not arbitrary or capricious, a Washington federal judge found on July 8, rejecting a request by a coalition of states to grant summary judgment and remand the matter to the FDA for further consideration.

  • July 08, 2025

    Illinois Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal Of Non-Brand Defendants In Zantac Case

    CHICAGO — Claims against non-brand defendants in a woman’s case alleging that the heartburn drug Zantac and its generic equivalent, ranitidine, caused her to develop colon cancer were properly dismissed, an Illinois appeals court affirmed.

  • July 08, 2025

    Prenatal Tests Maker To Settle Class Action Claims Of False Positives For $8.25M

    OAKLAND, Calif. — The manufacturer of noninvasive prenatal tests will pay up to $8.25 million in a class action settlement to resolve claims that its tests returned false positive test results for some rare genetic conditions despite advertising its products as reliable and accurate, according to a motion for preliminary approval of class action settlement filed in a California federal court.

  • July 07, 2025

    Applying Recent High Court Decision, Judge Grants Limited TRO For Iowa PBM Law

    DES MOINES, Iowa — Noting “the Supreme Court’s recent narrowing of district courts’ ability to impose injunctive relief beyond that which is necessary to afford relief to named parties,” an Iowa federal judge imposed an ex parte temporary restraining order (TRO) barring enforcement of a new Iowa pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) law as to the plaintiffs and the members of one of those plaintiffs; the judge concluded that the plaintiffs sufficiently showed that the provisions “are unenforceable as preempted by [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] and violative of the First Amendment.”

  • July 07, 2025

    N.C. Appeals Court Affirms Summary Judgment, Says Decedent’s Acts Led To Death

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina trial court did not err in granting summary judgment to the manufacturer of an over-the-counter bronchodilator, a state appeals court said, finding that the contributory negligence of a woman who died after using the product barred her claims.

  • July 07, 2025

    Faulty Bone Cement Failed, Woman Alleges In Complaint Filed In N.C. Federal Court

    ASHEVILLE, N.C.  — A defective bone cement used during a 2018 surgery failed to bond a woman’s knee prothesis to her bone, forcing her to undergo a third revision surgery to fix it, a woman alleges in a complaint filed in a North Carolina federal court.

  • July 07, 2025

    Government Says Theranos’ Holmes Is Not Eligible For Sentence Reduction

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Elizabeth A. Holmes, the founder and former CEO of defunct biotechnology startup Theranos Inc., “is ineligible for a sentence reduction because she personally orchestrated a fraud scheme that caused dozens of investors to invest over $800 million in the company she founded . . . based on false misrepresentations,” the government said in opposition to her motion asking a California federal court to reduce her sentence pursuant to an amendment to sentencing guidelines.

  • July 03, 2025

    Woman Alleges Sister’s Death Was Caused By Use Of Depo-Provera; Suit To Join MDL

    PENSACOLA, Fla. — The sister of a woman who died from a hemorrhage caused by an intracranial meningioma filed a wrongful death suit in Florida federal court against the manufacturer of Depo-Provera, a long-lasting injectable contraceptive that she alleges caused the death.

  • July 03, 2025

    Judge Says Ethicon’s Expert Can Testify On Conditions Of Pelvic Mesh Devices

    LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky federal judge presiding over a long-running case against a pelvic mesh manufacturer denied a woman’s motion to exclude a female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery expert from testifying for Ethicon Inc., finding that the doctor’s testimony is reliable.

  • July 02, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Upholds Approval Of Drug; Not ‘Same’ Under Orphan Drug Act

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a drug to treat narcolepsy during Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s seven-year exclusivity period for a drug containing the same active ingredient approved for the same disease or condition did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • July 02, 2025

    Texas Counties Say State High Court Opinion Confirms That Counties Are Not Persons

    AUSTIN, Texas — Counsel for two Texas counties that sued pharmacies for their role in the opioid epidemic sent a letter to the Texas Supreme Court contending that a recent decision by the court “confirms that arguments advanced by the Pharmacy Defendants are inapplicable where, as here, the plaintiffs are not patients.”

  • July 02, 2025

    Man Says ‘Gas Station Heroin’ Mimics Opioids In Proposed Class Action Against Maker

    ATLANTA — An Illinois man seeks to represent a class of consumers who purchased over-the-counter dietary supplements that contain tianeptine, a highly addictive substance that can mimic the effects of illicit substances such as marijuana, cocaine and opioids, according to a complaint filed in a Georgia federal court.

  • July 02, 2025

    Judge In Biocell Breast Implant MDL Sets Deadlines In Advance Of 1st Trial

    NEWARK, N.J. — The first surgical explant bellwether trial in the Biocell breast implant multidistrict litigation is slated to begin June 15, 2026, the New Jersey federal judge overseeing the MDL announced in a case management order.

  • July 01, 2025

    Judge Amends Order In Semaglutide Spat With Drug Maker, Compounding Pharmacy

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on June 30 granted Novo Nordisk Inc.’s motion to amend the court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of a pharmaceutical company accused of selling unapproved compounded drugs containing semaglutide, ruling that the motion for summary judgment is moot and that the drug manufacturer’s complaint is dismissed without prejudice.

  • July 01, 2025

    Medical Spa Urges Court To Toss Complaint Filed By Semaglutide Manufacturer

    NEWARK, N.J. — Novo Nordisk’s opposition to a motion to dismiss “does nothing to change the fact that its causes of action remain insufficiently pled under” Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, an aesthetic medical practice facing allegation that it improperly markets and sells compounded drug products that purport to contain semaglutide says in its June 30 reply brief.

  • July 01, 2025

    Zimmer, Biomet Answer Complaint Alleging Hip Implant Injuries

    CHICAGO — Zimmer US Inc. and Biomet Orthopedics LLC answered a complaint filed in an Illinois federal court by a man alleging injuries caused by a metal-on-metal hip implant, denying the allegations and asserting 43 affirmative defenses.