Articles Posted in Featured Lawsuits

Last month, medical device company Philips issued a sweeping safety recall of its popular CPAP and BiPAP sleep apnea devices that millions of Americans use to sleep every night. The recalled devices contain a polyurethane sound abatement foam that can degrade and cause users to inhale foam particles that can cause respiratory damage and possibly cancer.

The Philips recall covered an estimated 3.5 million sleep apnea devices so many plaintiffs’ lawyers are naturally wondering whether this will turn into a new product liability mass tort with thousands of plaintiffs consolidated into a Multi-District-Litigation (MDL). In this post we will take a close look at the nature of the recall and whether we have the necessary ingredients for a full-blown MDL.

Recall of Philips CPAP and BiPAP Sleep Apnea Devices

The third bellwether test trial in the massive 3M earplug lawsuits resulted in another solid victory for the plaintiffs.  Last week the jury in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Florida awarded Army veteran Llyod Baker $1.7 million in total damages in his lawsuit against 3M.

Like thousands of other plaintiffs in the Combat Arms earplugs litigation, Baker claimed that he suffered hearing damage (tinnitus) during his time in the Army because 3M’s earplugs were defective and failed to protect him. Baker sought to hold 3M liable under a number of different product liability theories, including:

• Strict Liability (design defect)

It has been over a year now since Bayer AG announced that it had reached an agreement with plaintiffs’ counsel to settle thousands of pending lawsuits alleging that popular weedkiller Roundup causes NHL cancer. The settlement agreement still needs to get approved by the MDL judge (U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria).

The hearing on whether to approve the agreement was held yesterday.  On Tuesday, however, Judge Chhabria issued a set of piercing questions in advance of the approval hearing. Judge Chhabria’s questions raise major concerns about the validity of the Roundup settlement proposal and cast doubt on whether the settlement will get approved in its current form.

• Roundup settlement update (video)

Paraquat is a chemical herbicide that has recently been linked to Parkinson’s disease. A growing number of lawsuits are being filed against the manufacturers of Paraquat by individuals who used or were exposed to the chemical and later diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  Call our Paraquat lawyers today for a free consultation if you have a claim.

So far enough Paraquat lawsuits have been filed that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) is expected to create a new class action Paraquat MDL.

Meanwhile, however, one of the earliest Paraquat Parkinson’s lawsuits is going to trial in state court in Illinois. The case, Thomas Hoffman, et al. v. Syngenta Crop Protection LLC, et al., (Case No. 17-L-517), was originally filed back in 2017 in the 20th Judicial Circuit Court for St. Clair County, Illinois.

Injectafter lawsuits are starting to be filed around the country amid allegations that the iron supplement causes hypophosphatemia (HPP), leading to fatigue, muscle pain and weakness, and bone pain.

Injectafer History

In 2013, the FDA approved the iron supplement Injectafer. This drug is used to treat iron deficiency anemia, a condition where the body lacks enough iron to produce healthy red blood cells. Shortly after FDA approval, studies revealed that use of Inectafer could cause severe hypophosphatemia (HPP) in some patients.

The Zantac cancer lawsuits are heating up.  Discovery is moving forward surprisingly quickly given the pandemic and it may not be long before trials are being scheduled.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers are pushing like crazy for Zantac victims, including our law firm.  Our lawyers are moving quickly and we have already signed up scores of plaintiffs for the  Zantac cancer lawsuits. If you have cancer and were taking Zantac, don’t delay.  We are at the point where there are statute of limitations concerns.  Call us today at 800-553-8082 or get a free online claim evaluation.

On April 1, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the removal of all Zantac and generic ranitidine products from the market, after discovering that levels of NDMA in the drug could increase with time and exposure to high temperatures.

In recent months, many individuals have filed lawsuits against Teva Pharmaceuticals regarding its Paragard IUD.

The plaintiffs in these Paragard lawsuits are alleging that the device fractures during its removal and that the broken pieces inside the body cause serious harm. In many cases, the fracture of the Paragard IUD has required women to get additional surgeries and permanently impaired their fertility.

The latest drug to catch the eye of mass tort lawyers is the gout medication Uloric.  The FDA is concerned that Uloric has a greater risk of death compared to allopurinol, another gout medication. This follows a clinical trial which showed that Uloric may result in heart-related death.

Increased levels of uric acid increase the risks of developing gout. Eating excessive amounts of certain foods increases uric acid levels. This includes steak, organ meats, and seafood. Non-meats that can increase uric acid levels include alcoholic beverages and drinks containing fructose. Obesity also causes the body to produce more uric acids, making it difficult to remove much of it. Diseases and medical conditions such as untreated high blood pressure, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, which also increase the risk of developing gout.

Earlier this month the FDA announced a major recall of prescription blood pressure and heart drugs which contain the active ingredient valsartan.  You can expect a large number of valsartan lawsuits to follow.

Valsartan is an active ingredient that is widely used in a number of brand name and generic drugs used to treat hypertension and heart failure.  It was recently discovered that when valsartan is manufactured in a certain way, it can contain a dangerous impurity called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NMDA).

NMDA is a known human carcinogen.  The valsartan medications containing the dangerous NMDA impurity have been linked to a specific pharmaceutical ingredient distributed by a Chinese company — Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals.  Zhejiang Huahai was manufacturing the contaminated valsartan component and selling it to several U.S. pharmaceutical companies, including Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Solco Healthcare.  Zhejiang Huahai discovered NMDA impurities in its product which eventually led to the FDA recall.

The Roundup weed killer cancer lawsuits have gathered a lot of recent attention.  A $289 million verdict will do that.

These cases are now pushing along with great steam. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in the Northern District of California is pushing to have MDL cases go before a federal jury by February 2019. Judge Chhabria has been presiding over all federal Roundup lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits allege that Monsanto failed to warn consumers that their Roundup weed killer brand might cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other cancers.

1. Roundup