Hundreds of Incretin Mimetics Lawsuits Reinstated

Hundreds of Incretin Mimetics Lawsuits Reinstated

Introduction

Nearly 700 lawsuits, all involving antidiabetic drugs Byetta, Victoza, Januvia, and Janumet, were reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, wherein the previous ruling was overturned.  The lawsuits were reinstated and remanded to Judge Battaglia for coordinated pretrial proceedings, which had been paused for about two years after the judge passed a motion for summary judgment filed by the drug makers in 2015, finding that the claims were preempted by federal law.

Allegations include that the drug makers knew that the use of this class of diabetes medications, known as incretin mimetics may result in the development of pancreatic cancer, yet they failed to warn consumers and the medical community.

MDL No. 2452 (In Re: Incretin Mimetics Products Liability Litigation) was created in 2013 in the Southern District of California before U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia.

The federal court recently adopted a new schedule as per the case management order (PDF) issued on March 21, wherein Judge Battaglia adopted a discovery schedule proposed by the drug makers for discovery and another round of pretrial motions on general causation and preemption issues, before any individual cases will be allowed to go before a jury. Further, the court has set December 11, 2018, as the time-limit within which the parties can file challenges to the admissibility of certain expert witnesses and another round of summary judgment motions, to be followed by a selection of a small group of bellwether trials by December 14. According to this new schedule, the first bellwether trial may begin in January 2020.