Weekly Mass Torts Bulletin 2021-July-26
Federal Judge Rejects Sanofi's Bid In Taxotere MDL
Sanofi's bid for summary judgment in the second bellwether case of Taxotere in multidistrict litigation has been rejected by a federal judge.
The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff suffered from permanent hair loss due to the usage of Sanofi's drug Taxotere. The attorneys representing the company are not happy with the ruling and stated that they would take the court's decision sportingly and keep the documents and facts in front of the jury to prove that Sanofi is not responsible for the plaintiff's hair loss. The trial of the plaintiff's lawsuit will begin on August 23, 2021.
The company's attorneys stated that as per the "learned intermediary" doctrine of Louisiana, the drugmaker needs to warn the doctors and not the patients. Hence, the drugmaker is not at fault as even the doctor mentioned that he would have prescribed the drug even after the label warning on the product.
The company even raised a motion in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in another case of the MDL. The plaintiff in the lawsuit completely believed in the doctor and did not ask for any other options apart from Taxotere.
Currently, Sanofi faces 12,000 product liability cases that allege the company of distributing and manufacturing Taxotere, a chemotherapy drug linked to permanent hair loss among the users. The company even faces lawsuits in different state courts across the U.S., including New Jersey, California, and Delaware.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Taxotere in 1996. Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt is overlooking the Taxotere lawsuits, which are consolidated under MDL No. 2740 IN RE: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
J&J Might Consider Bankruptcy Plan To Tackle Talc MDL
As per the sources, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is planning a bankruptcy protection strategy to deal with the popular baby powder litigation as the number of claims against the company’s talc products is growing drastically.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs say they cannot stop the company from pursuing the bankruptcy plan but can legally tackle the issue. They even indicated that such a plan could cause a comparatively reduced amount of settlements for the cases in the Talcum MDL.
The spokesperson for J&J said that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. would continue to defend the safety of the products. The company is looking forward to considering Texas' “divisive merger" law that allows the company to split into two entities. The law will allow J&J to file for bankruptcy on behalf of the new entity.
It is not yet clear if the company will pursue the plan as the sources even determined that the plan might be abandoned. Currently, tens of thousands of plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against the company with similar allegations that the baby powder and talc products of J&J cause cancer due to the presence of asbestos. The plaintiffs even include women users of talc products who developed mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
J&J was aware of the presence of asbestos in its baby powder and other talc products, as per a study from 2018. In May 2020, the company stopped its sale of baby powder due to the growing allegations of the products causing severe harm to the users. The company still claims that its products are safe for use and have been passed several tests for being asbestos-free.
Earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court of Missouri rejected J&J’s appeal in the litigation and rewarded $2 billion of damages to the plaintiff who alleged that she developed ovarian cancer because of using the company’s talc products. In June 2021, the company even agreed to pay $263 million to tackle the opioid claims of New York.
Johnson's Baby Powder, one of the most popular products containing talcum powder, is linked to increasing a woman's risk of ovarian cancer if she uses it regularly in the genital area. In a few cases, the cancer tissue was studied using an electron microscope and was found to have talc in it, which supported the claim that the cancer was caused by the body powder and increases the talc related cancer risk.
Opioid Drug Distributors To Pay $1.1B To New York State
McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation will pay up to $1.1 billion to New York state to tackle the opioid epidemic, as announced by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The agreement will eliminate the three opioid distributors from the ongoing opioid trial, which is advancing in Suffolk County State Supreme Court. It is one of the largest settlements handled by the attorney general, James. The companies will start making the payments in two months and will continue to settle the amount for the next 17 years.
James issued a press release stating that the opioid epidemic has affected several communities throughout New York and across the nation for more than two decades. It has affected a large number of families by killing hundreds of thousands of individuals and addicting millions more.
A base payment of $1.1 billion is guaranteed in the settlement, and further amounts may be levied in case of future litigation. A part of the settlement amount will be used to combat the effects of the opioid crisis. The settlement will even cover compensation for the private practice attorneys as a lawyer's fee.
Attorney general James said that no amount of money could compensate the families affected because of the crisis and people addicted to opioids. She even said that the settlement amount would play a vital role in tackling the opioid crisis of New York.
James even directed to change the ways of collecting and analyzing data in the opioid litigation.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster is overlooking the National Prescription Opiate Litigation MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation), formed in October 2017.
J&J, Opioid Distributors Agreed On $26B Opioid Settlement
Three major opioid drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have agreed to a $26 billion settlement to tackle a large number of opioid lawsuits against companies across the nation.
Seven states of the U.S. unveiled the deal, and if more states and local governments approve the deal, then it will resolve a majority of opioid lawsuits against the distributors and J&J.
The settlement will include $5 billion from J&J and $21 billion from the distributors. $23.5 billion of the settlement amount will be used to combat the opioid crisis fueled by the distributors and J&J.
The breakup of the remaining $2.5 billion of the settlement amount will include $1.6 billion for private attorneys representing cities and counties. States hiring private attorneys will get $350 million, and the state attorney generals will be paid $350 million for handling in-house opioid litigation. The remaining amount of $200 million will be used for other legal expenditures.
The negotiators need to get the approval of the deal from almost all the states of the U.S. within 30 days once the framework of the deal is unveiled. Once a sufficient number of states have agreed with the deal, then the cities and counties will get 120 days to decide about participation in the deal.
If the negotiators fail to get support from a sufficient number of states, then the distributors will have the upper hand in the opioid litigation.
The distributors and J&J have been accused of fuelling the opioid crisis across the nation by implementing illicit marketing strategies to boost the sales of opioids and earn profits.
Michigan Could Get $800M In Opioid Litigation
Attorney General Dana Nessel said that Michigan could get $800 million in opioid litigation from the three major drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for the opioid epidemic caused in the state.
The final amount will be decided and allocated as per the metrics and participation of local governments. The settlement amount will be a part of the earlier announced deal where the opioid distributors and J&J agreed to pay $26 billion as a national settlement in the opioid MDL. The defendants who will pay the amount are J&J, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.
In 1998, Michigan received a similar national tobacco settlement which involved a much larger amount. The deal allotted $8.2 billion to Michigan to be paid over 25 years. To date, Michigan has received $5.9 billion from the settlement.
Ms. Nessel said the settlement would provide much-needed financial support to the families and individuals affected due to the opioid crisis fueled by the distributors and J&J. It will even fund ongoing intervention, services, and treatment efforts in terms of the opioid crisis.
The agreement orders the pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen to pay $21 billion over the next 18 years. J&J will pay the remaining $5 billion over the next nine years, from which $3.7 billion will be paid during the initial three years.
The distributors and J&J are even ordered to regulate the shipping of suspicious opioid orders and provide proper guidelines to the sales staff on selling opioids.
“The total amount of money to be distributed will be determined by the complete level of participation of both the plaintiffs and the non-compliant governments,” the AG Office said. "Most of this money will be used for the treatment and prevention of opioids."
A total of 86 municipalities or districts have filed lawsuits to be settled by agreement. It is expected that the first payments will be distributed in July 2022.