Weekly Mass Torts Bulletin 2023-August-28
TUSD To Get More Settlement Money From Vape Company
After resolving a class action lawsuit against vaping businesses, Tucson Unified School District will soon begin to earn several million dollars.
Following a settlement with the Altria Group, TUSD will receive $3.2 million as part of a class action lawsuit alongside hundreds of other school districts around the nation. The parent business of several tobacco and e-cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Black and Mild cigars, and NJoy, is the Altria Group.
Five months prior, the school district and Juul reached a settlement amounting to little over $10 million. The identical class action lawsuit is the subject of both settlements.
According to TUSD Governing Board President, our staff spent numerous hours creating statistics, depositions, and other materials that helped demonstrate how Juul and Altria's actions damage our school system. He said that vape businesses target teenagers.
By the end of this year, the funding will begin to flow to the school system, and it will continue to do so over the following several years. To collaborate with the staff and district officials on identifying the best evidence-based relationships and processes required, a dedicated task group composed of local specialists in healthcare and addiction medicine is formed.
25% of the settlement sum will go to the district's solicitors. The district will still get around $10.3 million across the two settlements after the reduction.
The president of the TUSD Governing Board stated that he wants every cent of the settlement funds to go towards ensuring that the students are prepared to study and develop by assisting in the prevention and treatment of addiction among them, as well as addressing their mental health issues. The new funding, he claimed, will supplement the student assistance programs already offered by the school system.
This will significantly increase the number of services our district can offer, both in terms of prevention to assist students who aren't currently using, preventing them from using substances, as well as assistance to students who are using, assisting them with treatment, with addiction management, and with mental health management.
Missouri SC Transfers 5 Herbicide Cases To St. Louis Court
A decision by the Missouri Supreme Court mandates that five Monsanto Roundup herbicide cases be transferred to St. Louis County for trial.
The move to have five plaintiffs' claims heard outside of St. Louis Circuit Court was denied by a vote of 6-1, despite the fact that state law requires that they be considered in St. Louis County Circuit Court since that is where Monsanto's registered agent is located. Bayer, a firm with headquarters in Germany, purchased Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion. Bayer took over the Roundup legal dispute.
According to a Bayer spokesperson, the Circuit Court for St. Louis County is the proper forum for Griswold. The business is happy with the Court's decision to overrule the lower court's judgments on venue. The outcome of this venue determination will probably have an influence on other matters that are still pending in the City of St. Louis.
However, because an application to transfer was not submitted in a timely way, a sixth case with a related claim was ordered to be tried in St. Louis. The court may utilize its discretionary authority not to grant the writ in future situations due to such late submission of a writ petition on the night of trial, the judge said.
A senior judge who had recently retired and was assigned to the case disagreed. All six claims, as was previously reported, required a stay in St. Louis. Glyphosate, the primary component of Roundup, has been linked to cancer by plaintiffs across the country. Nevertheless, Bayer has persisted in fighting back against the charges throughout the trial.
The Bayer spokesperson stated that although the company has great sympathy for the plaintiffs in this case, the conclusion that Roundup is not to blame for their illnesses is supported by a substantial body of scientific research on glyphosate-based herbicides that spans four decades as well as assessments made by the EPA and other top health regulators worldwide.
The most recent examination of glyphosate by the European Food Safety Authority in July 2023 found no significant causes for concern for the environment or public health.
The Bayer representative stated that the company's glyphosate-based Roundup products, which have been used safely and successfully across the world for decades, have won the last seven Roundup trials. Bayer also firmly supports these products.
Indivior Agrees To Pay $30M Over Suboxone Claims
Indivior has agreed to pay $30 million to resolve a class action lawsuit brought by health plans against the pharmaceutical company for allegedly improperly stifling generic competition for its Suboxone opioid addiction therapy.
The agreement, which was disclosed in a document made in federal court in Philadelphia by the health plans' attorneys, still needs to be authorized by the judge. With a trial set for October, pharma wholesalers who purchased Suboxone from the Virginia-based corporation directly are still suing Indivior.
The CEO of the business stated that treating persons with mental illnesses and drug use problems remains the company's key priority. He continued by saying that settling these old legal disputes at the proper price helps us forward our goal for patients and gives our stakeholders more assurance.
In 2002, Suboxone received approval for commercialization in the US. Until 2009, Indivior held the only permission to offer the medication as tablets. In their complaints, the health plans and drug distributors said that Indivior changed the form of Suboxone from a tablet to an oral film in order to maintain its monopoly just as generic manufacturers were getting ready to launch their own less expensive tablets. In 2013, generic pills received government clearance.
In June, Indivior agreed to pay $102.5 million to resolve a number of lawsuits brought by 41 states and Washington, D.C. In 2020, the business consented to pay $600 million to settle claims made by the US government that it had falsely advertised Suboxone, particularly by portraying the movie version as being safer and less likely to be abused than comparable medications.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdoses involving opioids claimed the lives of more than 80,000 Americans in 2021.