Nine PPI Drugs Bellwether Cases Selected For Discovery

Nine PPI Drugs Bellwether Cases Selected For Discovery

Introduction

On December 4, U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi, overseeing the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drugs litigation, issued a case management order (CMO) indicating that by agreement of the parties, the number of bellwether discovery cases has been reduced to nine.

According to the CMO, a new deadline of January 21, 2021, has been set for the completion of core discovery. Judge Cecchi had set forth a "soft cap" of four depositions per side in CMO 36, following which the pool shall ultimately have six cases by January 29, 2021, to serve as the bellwether trial cases.

The selection will be done by the parties as follows, which shall be subject to the approval of the court:

• The plaintiffs' steering committee (PSC) will select one case from among its picks and one case from among the defense’s picks.
• The defendants will collectively select one case from among their picks and one case from among PSC’s picks.
• Special Master Ellen Reisman will select two cases, one from each group of picks, both of which must be, in her opinion, a representative case.

The cases will then undergo preparation for trial, including additional fact discovery, expert discovery, and dispositive and trial-related motion practice.

The first bellwether trial is expected to begin on November 15, 2021, which will be followed by other cases in the series until early 2022.

Currently, more than 13,000 Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, and other PPI drug lawsuits are pending across the federal court system. The lawsuits, consolidated under MDL No. 2789, claim that the manufacturers failed to warn about the risk of acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and end-stage renal failure associated with the heartburn medications.

Nexium (esomeprazole magnesium) manufactured by AstraZeneca is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001 for the treatment of peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, dyspepsia, and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. In late 2010, AstraZeneca announced a co-promotion agreement with Daiichi Sankyo to distribute Nexium. Dexlansoprazole (Dexilant) Esomeprazole (Nexium) Lansoprazole (Prevacid) Omeprazole (Prilosec) Pantoprazole (Protonix) are popular heartburn drugs under the class of Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI).