Drug Safety Developments

Cymbalta plaintiffs make second bid for MDL

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/products-cymbalta-mdl-idUSL1N10425Z20150724

Cymbalta plaintiffs make second bid for MDL

By Jessica Dye

July 24, 2015

More than 40 plaintiffs are asking a federal judicial panel to reconsider a request to consolidate lawsuits accusing Eli Lilly & Co of failing to warn patients about the side effects they could suffer if they stop taking its antidepressant Cymbalta.

On Thursday, attorney Steven Stein of Knox Ricksen urged the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to grant the motion, saying that the number of plaintiffs and law firms involved in the litigation has grown significantly, and efforts to informally coordinate the cases have fallen short, since a first bid to consolidate the cases was rejected in December.

9th Circuit revives suit linking Levaquin to deadly skin disease

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/products-levaquin-ruling-idUSL1N0ZH2QA20150701

9th Circuit revives suit linking Levaquin to deadly skin disease

By Jessica Dye

July 1, 2015

 

A federal appeals court has reinstated a woman's claim alleging that Levaquin, an antibiotic made by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, caused a life-threatening skin condition that put her in a coma for two weeks.

On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the district court had been too hasty in concluding that Gail Holmes' strict products liability claim was barred by California's two-year statute of limitations, since she was still in a coma on the day the lower court decided she should have been aware of a potential link between the drug and her condition.