U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi, overseeing the proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) multidistrict litigation docket, released a joint proposed case management order, which indicated that the bellwether pool would be reduced to six cases by the parties till November 9, 2020.
Previously, each party was asked to select 16 cases from an Eligible Case List to form a total of 32 eligible cases. The parties will then strike six cases each, narrowing down the bellwether discovery pool to 20 cases, which will then undergo case-specific discovery.
According to the latest order issued, a small group of representative bellwether cases is to be selected this month, which would go through expert discovery in preparation for the first scheduled trials, expected to go before juries in November of 2021.
The proposal also states that if parties are unable to agree on the common grounds, then the parties shall submit simultaneous letter briefs on November 9, 2020, setting out their respective recommendations over the cases that the court should select. The court shall then select the bellwether trial cases by November 20, 2020. The first bellwether trial is expected to begin on November 15, 2021, and additional trials are likely to be followed in early 2022.
The outcome of these cases will not be binding on other cases pending in the MDL. The parties will closely monitor the cases and gauge how juries are responding to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the claims.
Currently, more than 13,000 Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, and other PPI drug lawsuits have been filed across the federal court system. The lawsuits, consolidated under MDL No. 2789, claim that the manufacturers failed to warn about the risk of acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and end-stage renal failure associated with the heartburn medications.
