On Aug. 15, 2013, there were 53 lawsuits pertaining to four diabetes drugs centralized at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. As of July 15, 463 such lawsuits were pending before that very same court. Many were transferred there by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which is the body that establishes multidistrict litigation courts to carry out pretrial management of multiple cases.
“Plaintiffs in all actions allege that the use of one or more of four anti-diabetic incretin-based
medications – Janumet (sitagliptin combined with metformin), Januvia (sitagliptin), Byetta
(exenatide) and Victoza (liraglutide) – caused them or their decedent to develop pancreatic cancer,” the panel wrote in an August 2013 order centered on these cases.
Those who suffered pancreatic cancer after using any of the aforementioned drugs may want to get a free consultation from one of the experienced product liability attorneys at Reich & Binstock while there is time to file a lawsuit against any of the manufacturers.
Those drug makers include Novo Nordisk, Merck, Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co.
Recent science validates many victims’ claims for compensation.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” the FDA wrote March 14, 2013, “is evaluating unpublished new findings by a group of academic researchers that suggest an increased risk of pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas, and pre-cancerous cellular changes called pancreatic duct metaplasia in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with a class of drugs called incretin mimetics.
“These findings were based on examination of a small number of pancreatic tissue specimens taken from patients after they died from unspecified causes. FDA has asked the researchers to provide the methodology used to collect and study these specimens and to provide the tissue samples so the Agency can further investigate potential pancreatic toxicity associated with the incretin mimetics.”
Typically, lawsuits are not grouped together before one multidistrict litigation court when several defendants selling similar products are involved. Nevertheless, as the panel wrote in 2013, “Plaintiffs in the cases now before us, however, make highly similar allegations about each of the four drugs that manage blood insulin levels and the propensity of those drugs to cause pancreatic cancer. Several plaintiffs took more than one of the drugs at issue, which suggests that discovery specific to the plaintiffs in those cases will involve many of the same or substantially similar documents and witnesses.”
One federal court is handling a multiplicity of cases and Reich & Binstock is one law firm that has the experience and expertise that victims seeking compensation should want on their side. Reich & Binstock, which operates in every state, can be reached either at the toll-free number below or via electronic message sent through its website.
