Mealey's Drugs & Devices

  • May 29, 2025

    Parties Ask For Summary Judgment In Drug’s Removal From FDA’s Shortage List Case

    FORT WORTH, Texas — Motions for summary judgment in a dispute over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s removal of semaglutide, an FDA-approved drug for diabetes and weight loss, from the agency’s drug shortage list were made public on May 28, debating whether the agency’s actions violated federal law.

  • May 29, 2025

    Woman Says Spinal Cord Stimulator Device Failed, Sues Manufacturer And FDA

    LOS ANGELES — A woman alleges in a complaint filed in a California federal court that a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) system manufactured by Nevro Corp. was defectively designed and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated federal law when it allowed the company “to bypass statutory safeguards and enabled widespread distribution of a materially modified and inadequately tested device.”

  • May 28, 2025

    High Court Asked To Review Whether Fosamax MDL Ruling On Preemption Is Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petition for certiorari will be distributed for conference on June 12 on whether the high court should review a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in the long-running Fosamax femur fracture multidistrict litigation, with the drug manufacturer arguing that the petitioners misrepresented the appellate court’s ruling that reversed a decision that awarded a drug manufacturer summary judgment in 1,046 cases.

  • May 28, 2025

    Philips Loses Bid To Dismiss Complaint Alleging That CPAP Machine Caught Fire

    RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina refused to dismiss a complaint brought against a manufacturer of a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea device that allegedly caught fire, causing a woman to suffer second degree burns on her face and her home to burn down, after finding that the woman’s daughter is the duly authorized representative of her estate.

  • May 28, 2025

    Vanda Challenges FDA’s Denial Of Drug’s Fast-Track Application In High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved “the legal goalposts” when it denied a pharmaceutical company’s application for a fast-track approval of its new drug, and the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in finding that the decision was not arbitrary and capricious, the company argues in a petition for writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • May 27, 2025

    McKinsey Executive Sentenced To 6 Months For Deleting Files, Emails In Purdue Work

    ABINGDON, Va. — A former McKinsey & Co. Inc. senior partner has been sentenced to six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice for deleting folders, documents and emails from his McKinsey-issued laptop on matters relating to an investigation into the firm’s consulting work for the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma LP, the government said in a press release.

  • May 23, 2025

    Stem Cells Are Not Drugs Under FDCA, Clinic Tells High Court In Urging Review

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

  • May 23, 2025

    Depo-Provera MDL Judge Says Complaints Must Identify Requisite Injury And Product

    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, outlined what complaints must contain to be included in the MDL and identified potential deficiencies in complaints that have been filed.

  • May 22, 2025

    Judge Dismisses Complaint Alleging That Medication Contained Benzene As Preempted

    CHICAGO — A group of consumers who allege that over-the-counter medicine sold by Walgreens Inc. contained benzene have standing to sue, an Illinois federal judge found, but he agreed to dismiss the complaint after finding that federal law prohibited Walgreens from changing the drug’s label.

  • May 22, 2025

    Judge Signs Off On Final Approval Of $73M Settlement For EpiPen Antitrust Claims

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Kansas federal judge on May 21 granted final approval to a $73 million settlement reached with Mylan NV, Mylan Specialty LP and Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (collectively, Mylan) to end claims that they conspired with others in an attempt to delay entry of generic competitors for the EpiPen epinephrine autoinjector (EAI) into the market.

  • May 21, 2025

    Woman’s Taxotere Case Tossed For Failing To Timely Name Proper Defendants

    NEW ORLEANS — The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation for cases alleging that a chemotherapy drug caused permanent hair loss granted a motion to dismiss a Florida woman’s complaint, finding that her claims are time-barred under Florida law.

  • May 21, 2025

    Women Say Implantable BioZorb Marker Device Was Defective, Sue Manufacturer

    BOSTON — Six women who allege that an implanted radiographic marker used to mark soft tissue sites during cancer treatment was defective and caused injuries filed a combined complaint against the manufacturer in a Massachusetts federal court.

  • May 20, 2025

    Man Sues Medtronic, FDA For Injuries Caused By Defective Spinal Cord Device

    MINNEAPOLIS — A man who claims in a Minnesota federal court that two spinal cord stimulation (SCS) devices manufactured by Medtronic Inc. failed and caused pain sued the manufacturer and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alleging that the agency violated federal law in approving the devices.

  • May 20, 2025

    Hernia Mesh MDL Judge OKs Dismissal Of 5 Cases After Agreements Reached

    ATLANTA — The judge overseeing the Ethicon Physiomesh hernia patch multidistrict litigation signed off on the dismissal of another five cases after the parties told the court in a joint motion that they have settled all claims in those cases.

  • May 16, 2025

    CEO Of Spinal Device Company To Plead Guilty To Unlawfully Paying Surgeons

    BOSTON — The founder and CEO of a spinal medical device company on May 15 agreed to plead guilty to one count stemming from charges that he paid consulting fees to induce doctors to use the company’s products in surgeries that were reimbursed by federal health care programs.

  • May 15, 2025

    Drugmakers Move To Dismiss Case Claiming Sickle Cell Medication Was Ineffective

    SAN FRANCISCO — An amended complaint filed by seven individuals who allege that Oxbryta (voxelotor), a prescription medication used for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD), was ineffective should be dismissed because the claims are either preempted for fail as a matter of law, Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (GBT) and Pfizer Inc. tell a California federal court.

  • May 15, 2025

    Acetaminophen Makers Win Summary Judgment In Calif. Case Linking Drug To Autism

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A California judge granted the manufacturers of acetaminophen summary judgment in a case brought by a mother who alleges that prenatal ingestion of the over-the-counter drug led to her child developing autism, finding that her claims based on failure-to-warn fail as a matter of law.

  • May 15, 2025

    Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

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

  • May 14, 2025

    FDA, Diet Drug Maker Win Summary Judgment In Case Against Compounding Pharmacies

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on May 13 made public his ruling that granted summary judgment to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and to Eli Lilly and Co. in a dispute filed by companies representing the interests of drug compounders over whether the agency properly determined that the shortage of tirzepatide, a drug for diabetes and weight loss, had ended when it removed the drug from the agency’s drug shortage list.

  • May 14, 2025

    Federal Judge Grants Compounding Pharmacy Summary Judgment In Semaglutide Spat

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on May 13 entered judgment in favor of a pharmaceutical company accused of selling unapproved compounded drugs containing semaglutide after finding that the sole claim raised by Novo Nordisk Inc. “is moot, impliedly preempted, and fails on the merits for failure to show consumer injury.”

  • May 13, 2025

    West Virginia High Court Refuses To Weigh In On Public Nuisance Law For Opioids

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on May 12 declined to answer a certified question from the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to address the dispute over whether the state’s public nuisance law applies to the sale and distribution of opioids. 

  • May 13, 2025

    Theranos’ Balwani Says 9th Circuit’s ‘Serious Error’ Makes Rehearing Necessary

    SAN FRANCISCO — Former Theranos Chief Operating Officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should grant a rehearing or a rehearing en banc to reconsider its ruling that the government’s failure to correct false testimony during his criminal trial does not warrant a new trial.

  • May 13, 2025

    Fosamax MDL Plaintiffs Reject Need For High Court Review Of Preemption Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for certiorari in the long-running Fosamax femur fracture multidistrict litigation because the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “faithfully” applied precedent from the high court “to the facts of this case to find that federal law did not preempt state-law claims” when it reversed a decision that awarded a drug manufacturer summary judgment in 1,046 cases, the plaintiffs say in a May 12 brief.

  • May 09, 2025

    Pharmacies Say Appeals Court Erred In Finding Counties Not Persons Under Texas Law

    AUSTIN, Texas — A group of pharmacies tells the Texas Supreme Court that a Texas appellate court erred in rejecting its arguments that Texas counties suing pharmacies in two cases for their role in the opioid epidemic are claimants under the Texas Medical Liability Act (TMLA) and that their cases should be dismissed.

  • May 09, 2025

    3rd Circuit Won’t Rehear Ruling Affirming Dismissal Of FCA Suit Over Antibiotics

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc of its ruling affirming a lower court’s dismissal of a qui tam relator’s suit against Bayer Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and other pharmaceutical companies, alleging that “hiding” side effects of their antibiotics from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “caused fraudulent claims to be submitted to Medicaid and Medicare.”

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