New Onglyza Plaintiffs Can Directly File Cases Under MDL

Introduction

The federal court presiding over the multidistrict litigation constituting of hundreds of heart failure lawsuits linked to Onglyza or Kombiglyze XR medication, allowed new plaintiffs to directly file a case in the MDL. The ruling was passed in an order issued on October 3, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky.

The order stated, “filing a case directly in MDL No. 2809 will not determine the choice of law, including the statute of limitations. However, Defendants stipulate and agree that the filing of a complaint directly in MDL No. 2809 pursuant to this Order shall stop the running of any statute of limitations or prescriptive period, including the statute of repose as if the complaint had been filed in the district where it could otherwise have been brought absent this Order.” Also, only lawsuits naming a single plaintiff, other than an additional consortium plaintiff, such as a spouse, can be filed directly in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Earlier this year, an Ohio man filed a product liability case against Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, as he suffered coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure due to the alleged use of diabetes drug Onglyza.

This decision was taken mainly for the purpose of consolidated case discovery and related pretrial proceedings following which, any Onglyza or Kombiglyze XR lawsuits that remain unresolved would be returned to the specific U.S. District Court for an appropriate future trial date. The MDL Docket No. 2809 is overlooked by Judge Karen K. Caldwell in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

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