Source: https://www.masstortnexus.com/mass-torts-news/2016/09/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:16:53+00:00

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Eight cases involving the antipsychotic drug Risperdal are set for trial against Janssen Pharmaceuticals in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, with the company settling cases even as it denies that the drug causes disfiguring gynecomastia in boys.
Risperdal, a prescription medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, has caused gynecomastia, or the development of female breast tissue, according to leading plaintiff’s lawyer Derek T. Braslow of Pogust, Braslow & Millrood in Conshohocken, PA. This condition resulted from elevated levels of the hormone prolactin in the plaintiffs – which they allege is from their use of Risperdal.
The litigation has been continuing for three years, with 2,000 plaintiff cases filed in Philadelphia and the next trial set for January. Another 16,000 case are consolidated in California Superior Court in Los Angeles with the first trials set for July. Three earlier trials have resulted in verdicts in favor of the injured plaintiff in the amount of $2.5 Million, $1.75 Million, and $500,000. In all the trials, juries have found that J&J failed to adequately warn of the risks of gynecomastia.
Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, never got approval to market the drug for minors. Johnson & Johnson was fined more than $2.2 billion in criminal and civil fines in November 2013. It settled accusations that it improperly promoted the drug to older adults, children and people with developmental disabilities, according to the Justice Department.
Former commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) David Kessler testified in 2015 that the company hid information about the gynecomastia risk as early as 6 years before it changed the drug’s label to include the injury, which is characterized by abnormal breast tissue growth in adolescent boys and young men. He also told the jury that Janssen failed to inform physicians of the gynecomastia risk associated with the drug.
Braslow said that J&J has been settling Risperdal cases, but the amounts are not disclosed. The highest settlements are for boys who undergo double mastectomy. He advised plaintiff lawyers to focus on cases involving prescriptions written from 2000 to 2006.
Risperdal has carried a black-box warning by the FDA since September 2006 to warn about the increased risk of death in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis. In addition to the increased risk of death in the elderly, Risperdal has added warnings associated with Tardive Dyskinesia, which is the development of abnormal facial, shoulder and limb movements that a patient cannot control.
More than 3,500 personal injury and wrongful death cases are currently pending US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in MDL 2433 about the cancer-causing chemical C-8 that discharged from DuPont’s Washington Works Plant into the water supply in West Virginia.
The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation created the Multidistrict Litigation docket on April 9, 2013. Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr., Chief US District Judge is supervising the docket, IN RE: E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company C-8 Personal Injury Litigation.
Over many years du Pont discharged the chemical C-8 used to make Teflon (also known as perfluorooctoanoic acid (PFOA) or ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO) into the Ohio River water supply. The plaintiffs allege that they suffer or suffered from one or more of six diseases — including kidney tumors and testicular cancer.
A “Probable Link” to C-8 exposure finding was made after a study conducted as part of a 2005 settlement between DuPont and a class of about 80,000 persons who consumed water from six water districts allegedly contaminated by C-8 from the Washington Works Plant. See Leach v. E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., No. 01-C-608 (W. Va. Cir. Ct.).
November 14, 2016, Jury Trial of Kenneth Vigneron Sr. v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Case No. 2:13-cv-136.
January 17, 2017, Jury Trial of Larry Ogle Moodyr. v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Case No. 2:15-cv-803.
On July 6, 2016 jurors ruled that DuPont acted with malice by dumping chemical-tainted water from its West Virginia plant into the Ohio River, causing Marietta College professor David Freeman to get cancer and awarded him $5.1 million in compensatory damages.
In October 2015, a different jury returned a $1.6 million verdict in favor of a woman who also said she got cancer because of drinking water contaminated with C8. Carla Bartlett of Guysville, Ohio, was awarded $1.1 million in damages for DuPont’s negligence and $500,000 for emotional distress, but did not receive any punitive damages. That verdict is being appealed.
One of the final images of beloved golfer Arnold Palmer is the 87-year old in a TV commercial wearing a pink sweater and saying, “Treatment with Xarelto was the right move for us.” Many people are wondering if that is true in the wake of his death on September 25, 2016, which was preceded in August 2016 by surgery for colon bleeding, according to Golf Digest.
Despite ongoing federal and state litigation, defendants Bayer HealthCare AG and Janssen Pharmaceuticals have broadcast a TV commercial for more than a year, where Palmer and other celebrities tout the dangerous drug.
Just 25 months ago Palmer underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted, according to Golf Digest. That procedure marked the first of a series of health issues including high blood pressure, for which he took pills daily. Palmer said in a 2015 interview that he was taking “a blood thinner,” which he attributed to a bout with deep vein thrombosis (blood clots). Deep vein thrombosis is linked with coronary heart disease. Had he been taking Coumadin he would not have needed surgery to stop the colon bleeding.
A complete set of federal MDL forms can be found online on the Mass Tort Nexus app.
US District Judge John W. Lungstrum in Kansas certified nine class actions brought by virtually every corn producer in America who suffered a dramatic loss in the value of their crops in 2013 when Syngenta AG shipped genetically-modified corn to China, which responded by banning all US corn.
The National Grain & Feed Association pegged the market-wide losses at $6.3 billion through August 2015 when China turned away at least 1.45 million metric tons of corn starting in November 2013. It contained genetic trait MIR 162 developed by Syngenta, of Basel, Switzerland, and that variety wasn’t approved by China.
The class actions — which are part of sprawling litigation against the company — are denominated In Re: Syngenta Ag Mir 162 Corn Litigation, Case No. 14-md-2591-jwl in MDL No. 2591.
The judge appointed class counsel to be attorneys Don M. Downing of Gray Ritter & Graham, PC in St. Louis, Patrick J. Stueve of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP in Kansas City, Scott Powell of Hare Wynn Newell & Newton in Birmingham, AL, and William Chaney of Gray Reed & McGraw in Dallas. They are also lead counsel in the federal MDL litigation.
Judge Lungstrum certified a nationwide class to pursue the Lanham Act (false advertising) claims and certification of eight statewide classes (consisting of producers in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota) to pursue negligence claims, as well as tortious interference claims in the Arkansas and Missouri classes, and statutory consumer protection claims in the Illinois and Nebraska classes.
Three more federal actions, involving more than 2,800 plaintiffs, are pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois before U.S. District Judge David R. Herndon.
Approximately 2,375 cases, involving over 20,000 plaintiffs, are pending in the Fourth Judicial District of Hennepin County, Minnesota, and consolidated before Judge Thomas M. Sipkins in a case captioned In re Syngenta Litigation, No. 27-cv-15- 3785.
In addition, about 200 cases are pending in the Illinois First Judicial Circuit Court before Judge Brad K. Bleyer.
China imports 4 million metric tons of corn per year, and corn is the largest crop export from of the US. Knowing that the clock was ticking on the expiration of its Agrisure Viptera GMO corn patent, Syngenta aggressively commercialized the crop from 2011 to 2014. Despite warnings from industry participants that China had not approved the GMO corn, U.S. exports to China were found to be contaminated with MIR162. China then began rejecting shipments of corn from the U.S.
“These events show corporate greed at its worst. But there is more. To attempt to minimize the perceived impact of its conduct, Syngenta actively misled farmers, industry participants and others about the importance of the Chinese market, the timing and substance of its application for approval in China, the timing of when China was likely to approve MIR162, its ability to “channel” Viptera® to non-Chinese markets and otherwise contain the infiltration of Viptera® into the U.S. corn supply,” the class action complaint states.
Judge Lungstrum rejected all of Syngenta’s arguments against class certification. The company argued unsuccessfully that the terms “corn priced after November 18, 2013” and the term “producer” were vague. The judge said “priced” simply means the date when the price for particular corn is agreed upon by parties for sale, and that producer was defined by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency. The judge also rejected Syngenta’s argument that the proposed classes were overbroad.
The court added that the plaintiffs do have a class-wide method to show damages and have experts who have created models to determine the per-unit effect on class members’ sales of corn.
“The Court does not foresee any particular difficulties in the management of class actions, and … ascertaining the class members in this case does not require difficult individualized inquiries,” the judge wrote.
The judge overseeing federal Xarelto product liability litigation ordered defendant Bayer to turn over the personnel records of two doctors on its payroll who can testify about plaintiff claims that the blood-thinner drug was rushed to the market.
The plaintiffs also seek the records because they may contain evidence of aggressive compensation schemes or rush-to-the-market liability, which is vital to their case-in-chief.
US District Judge Eldon E. Fallon ordered the company to turn over redacted copies the personnel files of Dr. Dagmar Kubitza, Head of Clinical Pharmacodynamics, and Frank Misselwitz, Corporate Vice President, both working in Germany. Excluded from the records are performance reviews, evaluations for promotion and self-assessments.
The court weighed five factors listed the Third Restatement, as referenced in Seoul Semiconductor Co. v. Nichia Corp., 590 F. Supp. 2d 832, 835 (E.D. Tex. 2008).
Thousands of case filings are increasing court dockets in the Xarelto mass tort litigation in federal court and also the Philadelphia Court Of Common Pleas. Only claims involving hemorrhagic strokes (caused by internal bleeding, not a blood clot) can be brought in the federal MDL. As a result, thousands of ischemic stroke cases have been filed in the Philadelphia before Judge Arnold L. New.
A complete set of federal MDL forms can be online on the Mass Tort Nexus app.
The US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will hear arguments this month on consolidating 18 actions pending in federal courts across the country where the plaintiffs allege that use of cosmetic talc products made by Johnson & Johnson causes ovarian cancer.
The hearing will be on Sept. 29 at the US Courthouse in Washington, DC, for In Re Johnson & Johnson “Baby Powder” And “Shower To Shower” Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation (PDF), MDL Docket No. 2738.
The Georgia/Florida Talc Plaintiffs argue for consolidation before Judge Clay D. Land, Chief Judge for the Middle District of Georgia, where at least four related actions are already pending. Represented by the Barnes Law Group of Marietta, GA, and the Cheeley Law Group in Atlanta, the plaintiffs are Cammy and Michael A. Marchetti, Nancy Crews Hicks and Brannon Rice Hicks, Sr., and Allison Walker.
Plaintiff Tanashiska Lumas argues for consolidation before David R. Herndon in Southern District of Illinois. Her attorneys are with The Barrett Law Group in Lexington Mississippi. The judge is in charge of two MDLs, for Pradaxa and Yasmin.
Defendant Johnson & Johnson argues for consolidation before Judge Freda Wolfson in the District of New Jersey, where Chakalos v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 3:14-cv-07079, is pending. J&J is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the judge previously presided over three MDLs for Plavix, Fosamax and Southern Life Insurance.
In the alternative, J&J argues for transferring the cases before Judge Timothy DeGiusti in the Western District of Oklahoma, where Robb v. Johnson & Johnson, No. 5:16-cv-00620, is pending. He is not presiding over an MDL.
In May 2016 a jury awarded plaintiff Gloria Ristesund of Sioux Falls, SD, $55 million in damages. Talc was found in the ovarian tissue after a she had a hysterectomy. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 after using J&J’s talc-based feminine hygiene products for almost 40 years. In February another jury in the same courthouse awarded $72 million to the family of Jacqueline Fox of Birmingham, AL, who used Johnson’s baby powder for 35 years. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2013 and died last year.
Numerous research studies have shown the connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer. For details read Behind the $55 Million Talc Verdict: J&J Knew About Cancer Risks Since the 1970s.
Using a the self-created Talc Interested Party Task Force, J&J hired scientists to perform biased research about the safety of talc, members of the TIPTF edited scientific reports prior to submission to government agencies, members of the TIPTF knowingly released false information about the safety of talc to the public, and used political and economic influence on regulatory bodies about talc.

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