About 70 federal lawsuits alleging that the injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera causes an increased risk of developing a type of brain tumor will be consolidated in the Northern District of Florida, a judicial panel decided on Feb. 7.
Defendants in these cases, including Pfizer Inc. and other pharmaceutical companies, had favored the centralization of the cases in the Southern District of New York, according to the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s transfer order.
“Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. LLC and Pharmacia LLC support centralization in the Southern District of New York or, alternatively, before a judge in the eastern United States with experience deciding important threshold motions in a large mass-tort MDL,” the panel said.
All of the plaintiffs who commented on the issue of centralization favored it, with most supporting or not opposing centralization in the Northern District of California, the panel reported. There are a total of 27 legal actions that are now pending in federal districts, and another 41 lawsuits have been labeled as “related.”
The panel chose Florida’s Northern District, which includes Tallahassee and Pensacola, for multiple reasons.
“On the basis of the papers filed and the hearing session held, we find that the (27) actions … involve common questions of fact, and that centralization in the Northern District of Florida will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” the panel said.
Such consolidation of cases is done to eliminate duplicative discovery proceedings, conserve legal resources and avoid inconsistent trial outcomes.
The panel found that it made sense to transfer cases to Florida’s Northern District, where two related actions are pending, because it has the resources to handle nationwide litigation efficiently.
“Judge M. Casey Rodgers, to whom we assign this MDL, is an able jurist with extensive and exceptional experience presiding over large products-liability MDLs,” the panel said. “We are confident that she will steer this litigation on a prudent and expeditious course.”
Plaintiff law firms agreed that Rodgers was a strong choice. In an online post, the Miller & Zois law firm noted that she was now in the final stages of overseeing the 3M earplugs MDL and is respected for her organizational efficiency and writing skills.
Asked for a comment about the judicial panel’s consolidation decision, Pfizer said it would wage a vigorous defense in all of the pending lawsuits.
““Depo-Provera has been an FDA-approved medication for more than 30 years and has been a safe and effective treatment option for millions of patients during that time,” the pharmaceutical company said in an email to the Florida Record.
The injectable contraceptive was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 1992.
The plaintiffs in each of the cases allege that scientific studies show long-term use of Depo-Provera or its generic equivalents lead to an elevated risk of developing one or multiple meningiomas, which are tumors that grow in tissues around the brain and spinal column.
“All actions share common questions of fact regarding … whether Depo-Provera causes meningioma, whether defendants knew of the alleged risk of meningioma, whether they failed to adequately warn of this risk and whether defendants failed to promote safer alternatives,” the panel said.
The next stages in the MDL include early motions, pretrial discussions and the choosing of bellwether cases.