What Happened In The MassTorts World Last Week? 2020-Feb-24

Bayer AG To Stop Private Sales Of Roundup

Bayer AG is planning to stop private sales of Roundup herbicide as a part of ongoing settlement talks to resolve thousands that it is facing for causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

There are more than 40,000 lawsuits against the company throughout the United States, which claims that their glyphosate-based weed killer causes cancer.

Ken Feinberg, the prominent attorney leading Roundup settlement negotiations said that the number of lawsuits from the private users is rising tremendously, which may sum upto 85,000 individual lawsuits.

Bayer recently agreed to postpone several Roundup trials scheduled for January and February to advance settlement discussions. Also, a federal judge in San Francisco suspended all deadlines in the multidistrict litigation for 28 days, at Feinberg’s request.

Roundup herbicide was once considered the best gift for agricultural fields. It ruled the market right from the mid-70s until 2013 when some shocking hidden facts were unveiled about this product. 

In March 2013 an email sent by a senior toxicologist from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to her colleague mentioned the carcinogenic attributes of Roundup herbicide, which were not disclosed to the public 
due to Monsanto’s strong control over EPA. 

Finally, in the year 2015, World Health Organization (WHO) declared that there was a linkage between glyphosate and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other types of cancer. Roundup herbicide was labeled as a category 2A- product by the IARC, which means it is probably carcinogenic.

Bayer will continue to sell the weedkiller to farmers and other commercial users, but the herbicide will not be available to the private users who use it for home gardening.

NJ Supreme Court Agrees To Consolidate Hernia Mesh Lawsuits

The New Jersey Supreme Court has planned to merge all hernia mesh lawsuits, which allege Ethicon’s Prolene Hernia System of causing injuries to the plaintiffs. All the lawsuits will be headed by the Superior Court Judge John C. Porto in Atlantic County, as part of multicounty litigation.

The plan to merge all Prolene Hernia System cases and present them before a single judge is to reduce the number of trials, which can lessen the number of trials, and have common witnesses and parties.

The State Supreme Court rejected the requests to consolidate the Prolene Hernia System cases before in August 2018, and again in May 2019. However, the court approved to create separate litigations involving Ethicon Physiomesh in August 2018, and Ethicon Proceed meshes in May 2019. 

There was an increase in the sale of hernia mesh after the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved it in the year 2010. The mesh used for repairing hernia was promoted as a physiologically well-designed device, offering strong and comfortable healing and giving an exceptional intraoperative handling benefit. 

In the United States, hernia mesh is used in 9 out of 10 hernia surgeries annually. The U.S. FDA had earlier approved this device, stating that the device can help patients to recover in less time after surgery compared to other treatment options. However, years later this mesh had to be recalled after many complications were reported. Patients after undergoing the surgery using hernia mesh complained of bowel obstruction, adhesion, infection, chronic pain and hernia recurrence.

Currently, there are more than 100 Prolene hernia system lawsuits pending in New Jersey, each claiming that the products resulted in individuals suffering painful and debilitating injuries after a hernia repair because of the design defect.

$18B Opioids Settlement Offer Rejected By 21 U.S. States

Attorney generals in 21 U.S. states rejected an offer of $18 billion from Mckesson Corp. and other opioid distributors, as the states consider the fine to be less compared to the opioid crisis caused because of them.

McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health are the three major companies involved in the deal. The companies have lawsuits filed against them by at least 30 states, out of which some want to strike a deal between $22 billion to $32 billion.

County and city governments have filed the majority of lawsuits against the drug industry, which are consolidated in the Cleveland federal court. The lawsuits allege the companies, manufacturers, and distributors of misguided marketing, which resulted in the opioid crisis throughout the nation.

Opioid addiction in Northeast Ohio became the cause of death for thousands of deaths. The death rate was due to the high use of heroin, fentanyl, and other painkillers. The lawsuits also state that the huge amount of pills dumped in the market increase the addiction to these painkillers, as people chose cheaper heroin on the streets over prescription painkillers. 
 
A case for the opioid crisis that began in 2014 was the first in history where local government entities sued Big Pharma for causing painkiller addiction. The case brought by Oklahoma in 2019 was the first to go for trial where Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $572 million in an opioid lawsuit. Later, the verdict was reduced to $465 million, for which the appeal is still pending.
 
Federal health officials warned that opioids account for nearly 70% of all drug overdoses. 3,100 deaths were accounted for due to opioid overdoses in 2013 and the number has surpassed 36,000 by 2019.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, and nine other states along with the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief, asking the appeals court to put an end to Ohio federal judge's September certification of the negotiation class designed to help resolve the multidistrict opioid litigation.

Zantac Lawsuits Initial Conference Scheduled For Next Month

U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg, appointed to preside over the coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings of Zantac lawsuits, issued a pretrial order on February 14, indicating an Initial Conference to be scheduled at 9:00 a.m. on March 20, to discuss the status of the litigation.

Since it was discovered late last year that the popular heartburn drug puts users at high levels of cancer-causing chemicals, more than 140 product patents and allegations made in stages by Zantac have been included in the entire court system. However, as Zantac's lawyers continue to review and apply for former users who are diagnosed with various forms of cancer, thousands of lawsuits are expected to be filed in the coming weeks and months.

Each claim raises similar allegations, indicating that the active ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, produces high levels of a carcinogen known as Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). After prolonged exposure to chemicals, the plaintiffs claimed that Zantac's adverse effects had led to bladder cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer, and other cancers in the digestive tract.

The Initial Conference agenda includes a proposed discovery plan, amendments of pleadings, consideration of any class action allegations and motion, and discussion of the mode of trial. Also, parties can file any proposed case management orders or additional agenda items by March 6. Finally, the parties are allowed to identify two expert witnesses who would be available within the next several months to participate in a "Science Day."

Earlier this month, the U.S Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided to consolidate and centralize the growing number of Zantac lawsuits before Judge Rosenberg in Florida.

The Zantac litigation may become one of the largest active mass tort claims over the next few years, given the widespread use of the acid reflux and heartburn drug for decades before it was removed from the market late last year.

Public concerns about the Zantac cancer risk first emerged in September 2019, when an independent pharmacy discovered that each pill may expose users to levels of NDMA that are drastically higher than the permissible daily intake limits set by the FDA.

The online pharmacy Valisure found that some 150 mg pills contained more than 3,000,000 nanograms (ng) of NDMA, yet the daily limit deemed safe by the FDA is only 96 ng.

These problems were not caused by contamination or changes in the manufacturing process, but appear to be part of the inherent molecular structure of the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, which may produce high levels of NDMA during storage at high temperatures or as it breaks down inside the human body.

Plaintiffs allege the manufacturers of Zantac knew or should have known about these problems for decades, yet aggressively marketed and sold brand-name prescription, generic and over-the-counter versions of Zantac for years, without warning users that it may cause them to develop cancer.

Last year, the popular heartburn drug was voluntarily recalled by many drug makers, due to rising allegations, which indicates the active ingredient in Zantac, ranitidine, produces high levels of the known human carcinogen Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).  More than 140 product liability and class action lawsuits over Zantac are filed throughout the federal court system.