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October 01, 2026
CHICAGO — A pharmacist who filed a qui tam complaint against Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., Walgreen Co. and various subsidiaries (collectively, Walgreens) on allegations that the company violated federal law by filling millions of invalid controlled-substance prescriptions and seeking payment through Medicare and other federal health care programs must turn to state courts to resolve his claims that 28 states owe him a portion of the funds they recovered in a multistate agreement reached with Walgreens and in a settlement to end federal claims reached after the government intervened.
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October 01, 2026
TOLEDO, Ohio — A couple “failed to allege facts plausibly connecting the alleged malfunction” of an allegedly defective implantable drug infusion pump “to a manufacturing deviation within the meaning of” Ohio law, an Ohio federal judge held in dismissing their product liability claims without reaching Medtronic’s federal preemption arguments.
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October 01, 2026
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
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October 01, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Family members and the estate of a woman who died of breast cancer cured the deficiencies of their amended complaint alleging that the manufacturers of Risperdal knew that the use of their prescription medications increased the risk of cancer and failed to warn patients or their health care providers, a California federal judge held, denying a motion to dismiss.
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October 01, 2026
PHOENIX — The Arizona federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving C.R. Bard Inc.’s implanted port catheter (IPC) device denied a motion for summary judgment filed by C.R. Bard Inc. and related companies, clearing the way for the third bellwether trial in the MDL on product liability claims brought by a woman who alleges that a Bard PowerPort implanted for chemotherapy caused a bloodstream infection and sepsis.
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September 30, 2026
SHERMAN, Texas — Novo Nordisk Inc. is seeking a permanent injunction barring a compounding pharmacy from selling certain compounded semaglutide products, alleging in an amended complaint filed in a Texas federal court that the pharmacy gains an unfair competitive advantage by selling drugs that have not received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
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September 30, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A pro se plaintiff’s claims under California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) that Boston Scientific Corp. failed to disclose an allegedly elevated failure rate for an artificial urinary sphincter are time-barred and inadequately pleaded under the learned intermediary doctrine, a California federal judge held, dismissing the claims with leave to amend.
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September 29, 2026
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals signed an order allowing parties to file amicus curiae briefs in support of the manufacturer of Tylenol and retailers in their bid for appellate court rehearing and/or rehearing en banc to reconsider its July opinion that vacated rulings excluding the testimony of general causation experts retained by parents who allege that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the resulting judgments.
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September 28, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling reversing the remand of an opioid suit against pharmacy benefit managers provides additional support for rehearing a Ninth Circuit decision allowing California's similar suit to proceed in state court, the PBMs tell the Ninth Circuit in a notice of supplemental authority filed as the court considers their petition for rehearing following the U.S. Supreme Court's April ruling in Chevron U.S.A., Inc., et al. v. Plaquemines Parish, et al.
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September 28, 2026
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Finding there is no controlling precedent from the South Carolina Supreme Court as to the meaning of “damages because of bodily injury” in the context of a coverage dispute for more than 350 lawsuits seeking damages that were allegedly caused by the distribution of opioids in a manner that caused addiction, injury and death, a federal judge in South Carolina denied cross-motions for summary judgment filed by a drug distributor insured and its insurers and directed the parties to confer on a proposed question or questions to certify to the state’s high court.
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September 28, 2026
SEATTLE — The manufacturer of a generic drug used to treat high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders asked a Washington federal court to dismiss a proposed class action alleging that its generic carvedilol was contaminated with a potentially harmful nitrosamine, arguing that the named plaintiff failed to allege that she purchased any recalled or defective tablets.
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September 25, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A woman seeking to represent nationwide and California classes of purchasers on Sept. 24 amended her complaint against Veracity Wellness Inc. that alleges that the company deceptively markets its Metabolism Ignite dietary supplement as “Nature’s Ozempic” and as a natural alternative to prescription weight-loss drugs, asserting claims for violation of California’s unfair competition law and other laws.
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September 25, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A trustee for a bankruptcy trust on Sept. 24 filed a notice of appeal of a Pennsylvania federal judge’s grant of excess insurers’ motion for summary judgment on bellwether insurance coverage issues as applied to a bankrupt pharmaceutical company insured’s liability for injury claims related to transvaginal surgical mesh products.
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September 25, 2026
CLEVELAND — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation appointed a managing partner of Motley Rice LLC as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs following the death of Joseph F. Rice, the co-founder of the firm.
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September 24, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia federal judge dismissed failure-to-warn claims and portions of a negligence claim based on a failure to warn against the manufacturer and distributor of an injectable corticosteroid that a woman alleges was contaminated and caused an infection leading to the amputation of a toe and the need to implant a spinal cord stimulator; the judge also dismissed her negligence per se claim but allowed her manufacturing defect, remaining negligence and warranty claims to proceed.
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September 24, 2026
BALTIMORE — A Maryland federal judge refused to stay a product liability suit alleging injuries from an allegedly defective spinal cord stimulation (SCS) device, finding that the plaintiff failed to show cause for pausing the 16-month-old case while the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) considers a motion to centralize related cases against Nevro LLC and Globus Medical Inc.
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September 21, 2026
CINCINNATI — The Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee (PEC) in the national opioid multidistrict litigation urged the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to deny “yet another in a series of meritless mandamus petitions” filed by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) challenging a judge’s decision allowing hundreds of plaintiffs to amend their complaints to add claims against the PBMs.
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September 17, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — A woman who claims that she woke up with partial blindness in her right eye the day after taking her first 1-milligram dose of Wegovy, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medication, sued the drug manufacturer directly in the multidistrict litigation pending in a Pennsylvania federal court.
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September 17, 2026
TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington federal judge granted a stipulated motion for voluntary dismissal and ordered that a wrongful death complaint alleging that a defect in an insulin pump caused a man to die from diabetic ketoacidosis be dismissed with prejudice (Roy McNairy, et al. v. Medtronic Inc., et al., No. 26-5700, W.D. Wash.)
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September 17, 2026
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
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September 17, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Pfizer Inc. and Global Blood Therapeutics have agreed to fund up to $750,000 in reimbursements for certain out-of-pocket purchases of the sickle cell disease drug Oxbryta to settle a proposed class action alleging that consumers would not have bought the medication had they known that it was ineffective, according to an unopposed motion for preliminary approval filed in a California federal court.
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September 17, 2026
PHOENIX — An interventional radiologist who “has implanted and removed thousands of ports from numerous manufacturers” can properly use his experience as the basis of his expert opinion on port safety and efficacy, the Arizona federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving C.R. Bard Inc.’s implanted port catheter (IPC) device ruled in denying in part a motion to exclude filed by the plaintiffs.
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September 16, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge rejected a manufacturer’s argument that federal law preempts claims that its product, used in skin resurfacing and body contouring procedures, caused a woman severe burns and scarring but dismissed the claims with leave to amend because the woman failed to sufficiently allege a product defect.
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September 15, 2026
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal court jury returned a $40 million verdict for a woman who alleged that a C.R. Bard Inc. implanted port catheter (IPC) device fractured and left a piece dislodged in her heart in the second bellwether case in the multidistrict litigation to reach trial.
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September 15, 2026
BOSTON — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving Covidien hernia mesh has set a January 2027 trial date for the second bellwether trial in a case in which a woman alleges that a defect in the hernia mesh caused the premature resorption of the collagen coating meant to protect against adhesions and resulted in permanent injuries.