What Happened In The MassTorts World Last Week? 2020-Apr-13

Zantac Lawsuits: Procedures To Implement Census Established

Parties involved in the Zantac litigations are asked to conduct a two-stage census to provide more information about all filed and unfiled claims by U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg.

According to a pretrial order issued by Judge Rosenberg on April 2, an initial census will give the court details about the nature of the “full inventory of retained clients” represented by lawyers involved in the litigation and help the court select a leadership team that is most effective and represents the interests of plaintiffs.

The order rules for the use of an “Initial Census Form” to get a count and information on all cases filed in the MDL to date, as well as some unfiled cases. Besides, the order calls for a second phase, which will involve the use of the “Census Plus Form” for all personal injury and medical monitoring claims. The order also asks for the creation of a voluntary Census Registry for potential unfiled cases.

Currently, there are around 140 product liability lawsuits and class action cases filed throughout the federal court system, each alleging that the active ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, produces high levels of the known human carcinogen N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

Earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested manufacturers to discontinue all versions of Zantac from the market, as it poses a risk to public health.

The FDA has urged the consumers to stop using any version of Zantac. Zantac is one of the top-selling products in the U.S. market for decades. It became the first medication to surpass 1 billion annual sales in 1988. But, it seems the manufacturers knew for years that Zantac causes cancer since the active pharmaceutical ingredient is inherently unstable and produces high levels of the NDMA, which is considered a carcinogen.

The public was not aware of the high levels of NDMA produced by Zantac until September 2019. An independent pharmacy, Valisure, conducted testing on Zantac, which claimed that each pill might result in a level of exposure higher than the limit set by the FDA regarding the intake of NDMA. The testing by Valisure indicated that 150 mg pills contained more than 3,000,000 nanograms (ng) of NDMA, contrary to 96 ng set by FDA.

Considering the facts about Zantac, the FDA has requested to recall all the Zantac products from the U.S. drug market.

Roundup Settlement Talks Delayed Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Bayer AG said that the coronavirus pandemic is slowing down the settlements talks over thousands of plaintiffs who claim that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer.

The company recently applied a right to terminate a draft settlement agreement, that it had reached with a group of firms and extended the negotiations through April. Bayer AG’s CEO Werner Baumann, and Kenneth Feinberg, the mediator appointed to lead the settlement talks, both acknowledged the delay.

Bayer recently agreed to pay nearly $40 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit claiming misleading and false advertisements over its weedkiller.

Bayer is now facing more than 40,000 Roundup lawsuits consolidated under MDL No. 2741 presided by the U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California.

Bayer has agreed to pay nearly $40 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit claiming misleading and false advertisements over its controversial weed killer Roundup.

According to the lawsuit filed by several plaintiffs in Missouri federal court in February 2019, Scotts Miracle-Gro Products, Inc. and Monsanto Company, now owned by Bayer, face allegations that the manufacturers falsely claimed that the active ingredient, glyphosate, only targets an enzyme that is not found in humans or pets.

Monsanto, Bayer’s subsidiary, has agreed to pay $39.5 million as part of the Roundup class action settlement. The manufacturer also agreed to remove language from Roundup Weed and Grass Killer labels, which previously indicated glyphosate only affects plant enzymes.

Currently, Bayer faces many lawsuits over its Roundup weed killer, but this case is different from thousands of cases faced by the manufacturer over allegations that long-term exposure of glyphosate causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other injuries to the users of Roundup.

Many state court cases have already been postponed following a settlement discussion between the parties and the prominent mediator Ken Feinberg

Zantac Lawsuit Proceedings To Be Held Via Video Conferences

The U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg indicated that Zantac lawsuits would continue to move forward via video conferencing, following the disruption caused by the nationwide COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a pretrial order issued by on April 3, Judge Rosenberg, recognizing the importance of keeping the litigation moving forward, scheduled an initial status conference and interviews for attorneys seeking leadership positions through video conferencing.

The Initial Conference, which was set for March 20, is now scheduled on May 12 at 09:00 AM. The interviews for the plaintiff’s leadership positions are scheduled on May 6 and May 7.

Zantac lawyers interested in appointments should submit written disclosure statements answering several questions listed in the pretrial order by 04:00 PM on April 16, via email and are not required to be notarized.

Currently, there are around 140 product liability lawsuits and class action cases filed throughout the federal court system, each alleging that the active ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, produces high levels of the known human carcinogen N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

Ohio Cities Face Opioid Epidemic Amidst Current Pandemic

Reports claim that amidst the pandemic outbreak, two Ohio cities, Dayton and Columbus, are facing a sharp rise in opioid overdose (OD) death rates.

Ann Stevens with Montgomery County Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services informed that there has been a 58% increase in fatal overdose deaths compared to a year ago. Stevens said that the people are traumatized, nervous, and depressed by the quarantine and social isolation, which may be the reasons for the rise in deaths due to opioids.

Tom Synan, Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition member, also showed concern over how isolation is affecting the people who are on the verge of recovery from the opioid epidemic as the affected people need a personal touch to deal with the epidemic.

Synan and Stevens both are efficiently trying to tackle the epidemic amidst the chaos of pandemic by talking to the opioid-induced people over the phone and by giving telehealth visits.

Synan even alerted that China plays a prominent role in importing the drugs, and there have been fewer imports during the pandemic outbreak. Currently, the opioids distributors are at the halt of business, but as soon as the pandemic ends, the distributors will aggressively market their products to cover the losses they suffered during the pandemic.

A trial date of March 2021 has been set by a panel of judges from West Virginia for hearing the lawsuits filed by counties, cities, towns, and hospitals claiming the damages caused due to the opioid epidemic by the opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Last week a status conference took place, which was headed by Judge Alan Moats, who heads the panel of the lawsuits. The conference was to discuss and calculate the amount of damage caused by the drug manufacturers, as West Virginia is the most affected state with a higher rate of overdose death rate in the nation.

The lawsuits filed by the counties and cities claim that a large number of people got affected due to the opioid crisis, which was caused because of the negligence of manufacturers and lack of awareness of the use of opioid painkillers whereas, the company responded that the drugs were distributed only to the licensed pharmacies.

McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen are the companies involved in the lawsuit, who have agreed to pay a combined settlement of $72 million to the states of West Virginia. Counties and cities have filed their separate lawsuits apart from the state.

Companies manufacturing opioids convinced the medical community that these medications were not addictive and were purely beneficial. This belief raised the number of prescriptions and sales unwarrantedly, resulting in a mass misuse of these drugs, to the extent that this was identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a public issue and named it an 'opioid crisis'.

3M Urges To Dismiss Earplugs Lawsuits

Nationwide, military veterans who suffered from hearing loss due to 3M earplugs are urging the court to reject the plea of 3M Company that argues to free itself from allegations of providing defective earplugs under “government contractor defense.”

More than 140,000 army veterans have sued the company and its Aearo Technologies subsidiary alleging a design defect in their 3M earplug resulted in them suffering hearing loss, tinnitus, and other injuries. The allegations involved the earplugs version 2 (CAEv2), which were standard issued by the U.S. military between 2013 and 2015.

According to a summary judgment filed on April 1, 3M Company has urged to dismiss the lawsuits filed against them as they were relying on the “government contractor defense,”  and distributed the earplugs as per the guidelines provided by the military. However, the jury representing the veteran's argued that the company is blaming the military for their carelessness, so the company's plea cannot be accepted.

The judge who is overseeing the 3M litigation will decide the fate of the motions. Rejection of both the motions will result in pretrial proceedings of the lawsuits, scheduled for April 2021.