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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.
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August 12, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge granted a motion to dismiss filed by six women who sought voluntary dismissal of their claims that an implanted radiographic marker used to mark soft tissue sites during cancer treatment was defective and caused injuries; the women told the court that a settlement has been reached.
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August 12, 2026
BALTIMORE — A woman who received compensation through Purdue Pharma LP's nationwide opioid settlement filed a putative class action in a Maryland federal court accusing the law firm that represented her of improperly withholding excessive amounts for medical liens in violation of the settlement agreement.
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August 12, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Abbott Laboratories urges the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) to reject a renewed effort by individuals who allege that they were injured by defective spinal cord stimulators (SCS) to centralize all pending cases against the manufacturer, arguing that the cases involve different devices, injuries and representations and lack common factual questions warranting an MDL; the panel previously created an MDL that included only cases against Boston Scientific Corp.
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August 12, 2026
SEATTLE — A woman filed a putative nationwide class action complaint in a Washington federal court against a drugmaker, seeking to represent a class of consumers who purchased a generic drug used to treat high blood pressure and other heart-related disorders that was allegedly unsafe and not therapeutically equivalent to the brand name drug.
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August 11, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nevro LLC and Globus Medical Inc. tell the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) that plaintiffs alleging injuries from Nevro spinal cord stimulators have failed to justify creating a separate multidistrict litigation, arguing in their opposition to a motion for transfer that centralization would delay rather than streamline the cases.
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August 06, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — A divided California Supreme Court reversed a lower court and directed entry of summary judgment for Gilead Sciences Inc., rejecting claims that a duty of care is owed to consumers who allege that they suffered injuries to their kidneys, bones and teeth while the company withheld a safer alternative to a concededly nondefective drug used in the treatment of HIV.
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August 06, 2026
HOUSTON — A nationwide pharmacy that dispenses compounded tirzepatide products failed to convince a Texas federal judge that compounded pharmaceuticals are not “new drugs” under the state laws at issue in an unfair competition suit filed by Eli Lilly and Co.; the judge denied Revive RX LLC’s motion for judgment on the pleadings.
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August 06, 2026
New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
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August 06, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral argument in October in a case disputing whether certain North Carolina restrictions on mifepristone, one of the two drugs prescribed for medication abortions, are preempted by federal law; the court held the appeal in abeyance in December 2024 pending a decision in related case, GenBioPro, Inc. v. Kristina Raynes, et al.
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August 06, 2026
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a former employee’s False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation suit against the medical device company that terminated his employment, finding that the operative complaint failed to allege that the former employee held the belief that the employer submitted or would submit fraudulent claims to the government for payment.
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August 05, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal jury on Aug. 4 awarded a man and his wife $88 million in the first bellwether case from the multidistrict litigation involving Covidien hernia mesh to go to trial, finding that the manufacturer failed to warn him about the danger of the mesh and made false statements about its safety.
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August 05, 2026
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Eligibility requirements and other details of a recently announced master settlement agreement (MSA) in the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation will be explained at a town hall for plaintiffs who allege that the long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, the judge overseeing the MDL said in a case management order.
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August 04, 2026
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge ruled that Novo Nordisk A/S and Novo Nordisk Inc. failed to plausibly allege that a company falsely advertised compounded semaglutide products as equivalent to Novo Nordisk’s FDA-approved medications, granting a motion to dismiss the Lanham Act claims but allowing leave to amend the complaint.
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August 04, 2026
NEW YORK — Law firms that routinely accept leadership responsibilities in multidistrict litigations filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Keller Postman LLC and Ashley C. Keller, telling the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should reverse sanctions leveled against the firm and its senior partner, who serves as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation, for failing to comply with a protective order.
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August 03, 2026
CINCINNATI — A man’s appeal from a lower court’s decision that held that claims involving an allegedly defective implantable medical device for his heart are preempted by federal law has been dismissed pursuant to the parties' stipulation, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said.
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August 03, 2026
NEW YORK — The false marketing claims asserted by consumers against manufacturers of cold medications containing oral phenylephrine (PE) that labeled the medications as "Maximum Strength" or "Max Strength" when they were no more effective than any other oral nasal decongestant are not expressly preempted by federal law, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, partially reversing a decision by the multidistrict litigation judge who had dismissed all claims with prejudice.
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July 31, 2026
NEW ORLEANS — Stating that the U.S. Supreme Court has an “unshakeable interest in resolving issues surrounding mifepristone” and pointing out recent comments by Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who testified before Congress that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision that removed the in-person dispensing requirement for the drug was “‘wrong,’ and [that] Louisiana’s laws are ‘really what’s being violated here,’” Louisiana and a woman who claims that she was forced to take one of two drugs used to induce early termination of pregnancy tell the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a reply brief to stay that decision.
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July 30, 2026
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, on July 29 granted the manufacturers' motion to substitute three replacement pilot cases after the five original pilot plaintiffs became eligible to participate in a recently announced settlement.
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July 29, 2026
CHICAGO — A woman who alleges that her infant daughter developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after consuming cow’s milk-based-infant formula (CMBF) manufactured by Abbott Laboratories Inc. before dying did not show that an alternative warning label would have prevented her child’s death, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in affirming a grant of summary judgment for the manufacturer in the first bellwether case in multidistrict litigation pending in Illinois.
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July 29, 2026
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A woman who alleges that a defective bone cement used during a 2018 surgery failed to bond her knee prosthesis to her bone, forcing her to undergo a third revision surgery to fix, filed notice in a North Carolina federal court that she has agreed to a voluntary dismissal of her case.
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July 29, 2026
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina judge held that commercial general liability insurers have no duty to compensate Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc. and Harris Teeter LLC for their alleged share of liability under a global settlement agreement resolving hundreds of lawsuits seeking damages allegedly caused by the distribution and dispensing of opioid drugs by The Kroger Co. and its affiliates and subsidiaries, concluding that Harris Teeter is not “legally obligated to pay” any of the damages under the settlement and, therefore, no coverage is owed.
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July 29, 2026
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge ruled that Novo Nordisk Inc. failed to show that testimony from a warnings expert retained by a hospital system that was sued in a class action brought by patients who may have been exposed to blood-borne illnesses was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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July 29, 2026
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri appeals court affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of insurers in a coverage lawsuit brought by a trust that was created in a bankruptcy proceeding for the benefit of individuals harmed by major producers of opioid pharmaceutical products, agreeing with the lower court that the products-completed operations hazard (PCOH) exclusion barred coverage.