Mealey's Drugs & Devices : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Drugs & Devices

August 15, 2025
Woman Sues Cartiva For Faulty Toe Implant, Says Company Hid Information

PITTSBURGH — A woman alleges that the manufacturer of a synthetic cartilage implant (SCI) device used to treat arthritis in a toe joint misled the public and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the safety of the device, which caused the woman to suffer pain after the device failed.
August 15, 2025
Parties Debate If Theranos’ Balwani’s Appeal Warrants 2nd Look By 9th Circuit

SAN FRANCISCO — Former Theranos Chief Operating Officer Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani argues that the government’s opposition to his motion filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for a rehearing or a rehearing en banc of the court’s decision that the government’s failure to correct false testimony during his criminal trial does not warrant a new trial “underscores the need for” a review.
August 14, 2025
Singapore Court Maintains Freeze Of Bioscience Company Assets Pending Arbitration

SINGAPORE — A judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court granted an ex parte application by a Danish company brought against a Singaporean bioscience company and its founder for a worldwide asset freeze pending arbitration in New York regarding an $830 million dispute over a drug for hypertension and kidney disease.
August 14, 2025
Texas Says Lilly Violated State Law To Induce Providers To Prescribe Its Drugs

MARSHALL, Texas — Texas has sued Eli Lilly & Company Inc. in a state court, alleging that the pharmaceutical company violated the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act (THFPA) through programs used to induce providers to prescribe its medications, including its GLP-1 medications Mounjaro and Zepbound.
August 13, 2025
8th Circuit Finds District Court Did Not Fully Consider Jurisdiction Arguments

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals remanded a product liability case involving an allegedly defective medical device for a district court to conduct a new forum non conveniens analysis after finding that the court erred in granting a motion to dismiss.
August 13, 2025
Judge Finds Women’s Claims On Defective Birth Control Device Are Preempted

ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge agreed with the manufacturer and distributor of a birth control device and a parent company, which argued that claims filed by women who allege that the device caused injuries are preempted by federal law.
August 12, 2025
Depo-Provera MDL Judge Rejects Bid To Modify Common Benefits Guidelines

PENSACOLA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge denied a motion to modify an order, which established common benefit preliminary procedures and guidelines, filed by a law firm that represents one plaintiff in 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.
August 12, 2025
Parties Ordered To Explain Failure To Provide Pharmacy Records In Suboxone MDL

CLEVELAND — The judge overseeing the Suboxone film multidistrict litigation ordered certain defendants to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for failing to comply with a discovery order.
August 07, 2025
Mass Tort Cases For Drugs, Medical Devices

New developments in the following mass tort drug and device cases are marked in boldface type.
August 07, 2025
False Advertising Suit Against IVF Embryo-Testing Company Dismissed

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge dismissed a putative class action filed by two women against a company that advertises itself as testing embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization (IVF) for abnormalities before implantation, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims that the company misrepresented the accuracy of its tests in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws were not pleaded with sufficient specificity.
August 07, 2025
Cobb County, Ga., Publix Settle Opioid Claims Involving Public Nuisance Laws

ATLANTA — A case filed by a county in Georgia against a supermarket chain that was once selected as a bellwether case in the nationwide opioid multidistrict litigation and was the subject of a dispute on whether questions on how the state’s public nuisance laws apply in the MDL should be certified to the state’s Supreme Court has settled, according to an order by a Georgia federal judge.
August 06, 2025
Pa. Federal Judge Holds Off On Ordering Sanctions Against Firm In Thalidomide Cases

PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Aug. 5 ruled that he will grant a law firm and its attorneys, 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, “the opportunity to be heard once before” he decides if sanctions are warranted for the firm’s alleged misconduct during the litigation, which began in 2011.
August 06, 2025
Florida Companies Settle Claims That GLP-1 Drug Sales Violated Connecticut Law

HARTFORD, Conn. — Florida companies have settled allegations that they violated Connecticut law by selling research grade semaglutide and tirzepatide directly to consumers in the state as weight loss medications that can be purchased without a prescription.
August 05, 2025
Novo Nordisk Sues Ark. Clinic For Misleading Customers With Compounded Semaglutide

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The manufacturer of Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus says in a complaint filed in an Arkansas federal court on Aug. 4 that a company falsely claims or misleadingly suggests that the compounded drugs that it sells are the same as or equivalent to the manufacturer’s prescription diet and diabetes drugs.
August 05, 2025
PBMs, Calif. Debate If 9th Circuit Should Rehear Ruling That Remanded Opioid Case

SAN FRANCISCO — A group of pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) facing allegations of contributing to the public nuisance of the opioid epidemic in California argues in a reply brief that the state’s opposition to its petition to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for a rehearing “underscores why further review is warranted.”
August 05, 2025
Judge Denies Woman’s Second Try To Amend Dismissed Complaint Against Device Maker

BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge denied a second motion for leave to file an amended complaint from a woman who claims that she was injured when her heart device malfunctioned, finding that her proposed amendment does not show that the device manufacturer breached its duty to warn.
August 04, 2025
4th Circuit Combines Appeals From Gardasil Bellwether, Nonbellwether Plaintiffs

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has agreed to consolidate appeals filed by bellwether plaintiffs and nonbellwether plaintiffs in the Gardasil multidistrict litigation who have appealed a series of rulings that led to the North Carolina federal judge overseeing the MDL entering final judgment against the plaintiffs.
August 01, 2025
Case Alleging Faulty Bone Plate Ends In Summary Judgment For Manufacturer

NEW ORLEANS — An orthopedic device manufacturer was awarded summary judgment by a Louisiana federal judge, who found that a woman who claims that a bone plate implanted to fix a broken tibia failed did not adequately plead her claims under the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA).
August 01, 2025
Judge: Tenn. Statute Of Limitations Dooms Injury Case Involving Implantable Device

CHICAGO — Tennessee law controls a products liability case filed by a man who alleges that an implantable device used to relieve chronic back pain failed, an Illinois federal judge ruled, finding that the claims are time-barred.
July 31, 2025
Ark. Federal Judge Says Law Banning PBMs From Owning Pharmacies Likely To Fail

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A recently signed law that bans pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) from owning a pharmacy business in Arkansas likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause and is likely preempted by federal law, an Arkansas federal judge ruled, granting motions for a preliminary injunction.
July 31, 2025
Judge Adopts Recommendation To Dismiss Case Alleging Weight Loss Drug Injuries

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge said a woman’s objections to a recommendation from a magistrate judge that a motion for summary judgment filed by employees of a compounding pharmacy be granted and that her complaint alleging injuries from medication taken for weight loss be dismissed “are impressive considering she is a pro se litigant with no readily apparent legal background” but ruled that the case should be dismissed.
July 31, 2025
Man Sues California Doctor For Mailing Abortion-Inducing Medication Into Texas

GALVESTON, Texas — A man filed a complaint in a Texas federal court accusing a California doctor of wrongful death for mailing his pregnant girlfriend abortion-inducing drugs in violation of state law and seeking an injunction that would prohibit the doctor from mailing abortion drugs into the state.
July 31, 2025
FDA Says Surgical Stapler Can Inadvertently Lock During Surgery

SILVER SPRINGS, Md. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in a correction for a disposable surgical stapler cartridge that the device can inadvertently lock during surgical procedures.
July 30, 2025
N.J. Multicounty Litigation Tracks Sought For Separate Injuries From GLP-1 Drugs

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Supreme Court has asked for comments on two applications to create separate multicounty litigation (MCL) designations for state court cases alleging that permanent vision loss and gastrointestinal injuries were caused by the use of glucagon-like peptide-I receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medications.
July 30, 2025
Judge Dismisses Counterclaims Filed Against Lilly In Diet Drugs’ Trademarks Case

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge dismissed with prejudice an abuse of process counterclaim filed by medical centers and two physicians who prescribe patients compounded versions of tirzepatide, a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for diabetes and weight loss, against Eli Lilly and Co., noting that “this is far from a close call.”