Skip to main content

Court Upholds Dismissal of Zostavax Shingles Lawsuits

Court Upholds Dismissal of Zostavax Shingles Lawsuits

Court Upholds Dismissal of Zostavax Shingles Lawsuits

Introduction

A federal appeals panel has upheld the dismissal of nearly 1,200 Zostavax lawsuits that alleged the vaccine caused the very shingles it was designed to prevent.

The panel agreed with a lower court judge that the plaintiffs failed to provide adequate evidence establishing that the vaccine caused their shingles injuries.

Zostavax was the first shingles vaccine approved in the United States, involving a single-dose injection containing a live version of the virus that causes shingles, aimed at protecting against the painful condition. Despite being promoted for years as safe and effective, thousands of former users filed lawsuits against Merck, claiming that the live virus in the vaccine was not sufficiently weakened, leading to severe autoimmune reactions and persistent shingles outbreaks.

Due to similar questions of fact and law raised in complaints across the federal court system, all Zostavax lawsuits were centralized before a U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2018 as part of a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL). Several groups of “bellwether” cases were prepared for trial, involving different categories of injuries.

The judge established two separate bellwether tracks: “Group A,” involving claims that Zostavax caused shingles-related injuries, and “Group B,” involving other autoimmune reactions such as postherpetic neuralgia, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), paralysis, transverse myelitis, meningitis, hemorrhagic strokes, and other injuries.

Demand letter and medical record review offerBefore allowing any of the “Group A” cases to proceed to trial, the judge issued a controversial order requiring each plaintiff to provide polymerase chain reaction (PCR) evidence to establish that their shingles were linked to the live strain of the virus contained in the Zostavax vaccine. Since doctors do not typically perform such testing during shingles treatment, and the results cannot be obtained after recovery, this requirement led to the dismissal of all Zostavax shingles lawsuits in December 2022.

The plaintiffs appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, arguing that the PCR requirement set an impossible standard and that they could provide specific causation without the PCR testing. However, in an opinion issued on July 16, a panel of judges rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments. They found that the dismissal of the claims was valid and that the PCR tests were the only reliable method to distinguish between the live-attenuated and wild-type strains of the virus.

“Plaintiffs knew from the start that they would have to account for and exclude the ‘obvious alternative cause’ of shingles for the Group A cases: the wild-type chickenpox strain of the VSV latent in almost every person over the age of 30,” the appeals court judges wrote. “But even after three years of litigation, plaintiffs had not produced a single piece of medical literature or expert medical opinion explaining how it can be determined that Zostavax, and not chickenpox, caused a person to contract shingles other than through PCR testing.”

As a result, the dismissal of 1,189 “Group A” cases with prejudice was upheld. This decision emphasizes the critical role of specific and reliable evidence in vaccine-related injury claims and highlights the challenges plaintiffs face in proving causation in complex medical litigation.

Comments

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.

Latest News

Study Finds Toxic Metals in E-Cigs and U-Cigs Vapors

Categories: E-Cigarette: JUUL

As health concerns about e-cigarette use escalate, emerging research suggests that a newer class of vaping products—ultrasonic cigarettes or u-cigarettes—may pose even greater risks.

A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives in…

Appeals Court Upholds $611M Roundup Verdict

Categories: Roundup

A Missouri appeals court has upheld a massive Roundup verdict originally totaling $1.5 billion, but significantly reduced the final amount Bayer and its Monsanto unit must pay to $611 million.

The case involved three plaintiffs from New…

Valsartan “Wave 2” Bellwether Trial Schedule Set by Court

Categories: Valsartan

As the first Valsartan bellwether trial approaches in September 2025, the federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation (MDL) is preparing a second set of trials.

This move comes in anticipation of the possibility that parties may…

✍️ FREE—3000 Pages Medical Record Review Trial!                
No Contract. No Risk—Fully Customized, Free!

Only 10 Firms Accepted—Offer Ends June 30!